


The Trickster Next Door

by Morphiina



Category: Marvel (Comics), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Banter, Comedy, Daddy Issues, Flirting, Human AU, Humor, Kissing, M/M, Mild Sexual Tension, Mutual Pining, One Shot, Pranks and Practical Jokes, Romance, Romantic Comedy, Teen AU, Teen Romance, Underage Drinking, bad language, i Amn just........... a litle one-shot. Thatse It . I Canot change this, magic?, these guys are nerds
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 03:04:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 25,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20333002
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Morphiina/pseuds/Morphiina
Summary: A new family just moved in next door to Tony’s house over summer break, and everyone is more than happy to welcome the Odinsons into their community. But when things start to go amiss in the neighborhood, Tony suspects the youngest son might have something to do with it.





	The Trickster Next Door

**Author's Note:**

> Just a silly little thing I wrote to test writing in my Chromebook :)

  
_ [Full Image](https://i.ibb.co/HD8Hhyz/Pranksternextdoor.png) _

It was a sunny August morning, a bit too hot for anyone’s liking. The smell of cut grass and the fragrant late blooms of lilies and the occasional pagoda tree drifted through the humid air, along with the mist carried from the lawn sprinklers fighting the swelter. Tony sat with his feet hanging down through the bars of his room’s upper balcony aside his best friend Rhodey, eating ice cream bars and wiping away the sweat dripping down into their eyes to watch the activity below. 

“That’s truck number four, just today.” Tony noted, and Rhodey grunted in response. “These guys must be _ loaded _.” 

“Everyone’s loaded in this neighborhood.” Rhodey pointed out. “Especially you.” 

Tony shrugged and took a bite of his ice cream. 

“Still no sign of these new neighbors?” Rhodey asked. 

“It’s just been movers so far, best I can tell.” 

Tony had been keeping an eye on the activity over the past few weeks. The house immediately next to his had been owned by a well-moneyed older couple, Mr. and Mrs. Beezer, for as long as he could remember; but early this year the husband had died and the widow sold off the house in favor of moving closer to her grown children. Although it had supposedly sold immediately, the prime real estate being in demand for moneyed families with children wishing to enroll in the nearby prestigious college and high school system and all, it had remained vacant all year. This month, however, it had seen sudden activity by renovators, and as of this week, movers heaving in furniture. Tony suspected the new owners would be showing themselves soon. 

“Think they’ll have kids?” Rhodey mused. 

“I don’t care. As long as it isn’t some cranky old lady calling the association on me every time she hears a hammer clanking five minutes past 8PM I’ll be dandy.” Tony grumbled. He didn’t miss Mrs. Beezer. 

“To be fair, you ain’t the most respectful neighbor.” 

Tony sighed. “I do my best to soundproof my workshop, you can’t say I don’t try.” 

“So we’re just not gonna mention that time you sent a rocket-propelled ice cream truck down the street blaring Rick Astley the whole way past the noise curfew?” 

“In my defense, at least _ one _half of the neighborhood thought it was awesome.” 

“Which half was Mr. Fury in? You know, whose pool your truck took a nose dive into.” 

“Eh, he never liked me anyway. Sics his crazy cat on me every time I try to walk past his house.” 

“Aw, Goose is a good kitty.” 

“I’d bet you money the man put a picture of my face on a spray bottle and trained that cat to associate me with ‘bad’.” 

“Oh hey, check this truck.” Rhodey nodded in the direction of the street. 

Tony followed his gaze and spotted a large five-seater truck with a bed full of boxes driving down towards the house. It didn’t have any moving company logos on it that Tony could see. “It’s gotta be them.” 

The pair watched as the truck pulled up to the front of the house next door, softly screeching to a stop, engine switching off moments later. The windows were too dark to see inside with the sun glaring down, but their hungry curiosity didn’t have to wait long to feast. The back passenger door flew open and out hopped a very tall, handsome boy, around Tony’s age, seemingly of a well-built physique, with medium-length blond hair pulled back out of his face. He was excitedly saying something about the house to no one in particular, and he was soon followed by an older-looking woman with a darker tone of blond hair and a kindly face as she slid out from the middle seat in the back. 

Both front doors opened and out stepped an older man with white hair, a thick beard and an eyepatch; and a pale young woman, likely in her early 20s, with wispy raven hair, a sharp face and an intense glare. The young woman had a bit of a green tone to her skin, and Tony could hear the older woman ask how she was feeling. 

“...if father could just drive smoothly...” The young woman was grumbling loudly. 

“The traffic was stop-and-go!” The father retorted. 

“Doesn’t mean you have to stomp on the gas every time!” 

“Now now, lets not bicker.” The kindly older woman, likely the mother, interrupted. “We have boxes to move!” 

The entire family had English accents, best Tony could tell. That certainly piqued his interest. Had they come all the way from the UK? 

“We should go offer to help them bring their stuff in.” Rhodey said. 

Tony groaned. “Manual labor? In this heat?” 

“C’mon, it would make a good impression. Neighborly love and all that.” 

“Love ‘em? I don’t even kn- oh.” 

Tony’s tongue caught in his mouth when the other back passenger door opened and out stepped the last member of the family. It was a boy, seemingly around Tony’s age or perhaps a year younger, with smooth pale skin and medium/short raven hair with just a bit of wave to it as most of it flipped over to the side stylishly. He was smaller than his siblings and very slim and lanky, but his aesthetically dark clothes hugged his form just right. The sunlight washed over his beautiful face, sporting the slightest smirk across those soft pink lips, and causing the most vibrant green eyes Tony had ever seen to glint as he gazed up at the house. 

“We should go offer to help them bring their stuff in.” Tony said. 

Rhodey looked at him with a raised eyebrow. 

“There’s a gorgeous goth boy moving in next door, I can’t miss this opportunity.” Considering that to be the end of the discussion, Tony pulled his legs out from between the bars of the balcony and pushed himself to his feet, turning to stalk off into the house. 

Rhodey shook his head, but soon followed.

Tony strode up to the truck, where the blond boy was heaving a particularly large box from the bed of it. He put on his most charming smile, and said, “Hey there, new neighbor!” 

The boy glanced over and shot him a beaming grin, his eyes bright blue in the sunlight. “Greetings!” He set down the large box with a loud thud, earning a bark from his sister to be careful, which he ignored, and stuck his hand out to shake. “I’m Thor.” 

Tony took his hand and shook it firmly. “Tony, Tony Stark. And this is my friend, James Rhodes. We all call him Rhodey.” Rhodey nodded and smiled in greeting. “I live in the house right next to yours, so I guess we’ll be seeing a lot of each other.” 

“It will be good to have friends my age just next door!” Thor said happily. “I assume you will be attending the same high school this fall?” 

“We'll be seniors this year,” Rhodey said, “but yeah, everyone in this neighborhood goes to the same school.” 

Thor nodded in approval. “I will be a senior as well. Perhaps we will be attending college together as well? It’s nice to have the college in the same town, I won’t have to move twice in two years!” 

The older woman strode over, having just returned from carrying a box into the house. She had a warm, friendly face and Tony instantly felt comfortable in her presence. “Hello, dear.” She smiled. “I’m Frigga Odinson. You must be the Stark boy.” 

Tony grinned. “Infamous, am I?” 

“I only pay attention to the positive things.” She laughed kindly. “I hear you’re quite the genius.” 

“Now don’t go inflating his ego any more than it already is.” Rhodey smirked. “Anyway, we just wanted to welcome you to the neighborhood and see if you needed any help moving in?” 

“Oh, that’s very kind of you, but I’m certain we can manage. Thor could carry a herd of elephants without breaking a sweat.” Frigga pat her son on the shoulder proudly. 

“Please, I insist.” Tony said graciously. “It would give us something to do, anyway.” 

“Hmm, you could help my brother move his things.” Thor said thoughtfully. “He can’t carry large boxes with his sprained wrist.” Tony’s eyes lit up at that suggestion. 

“Oh, please.” The younger woman groaned from where she was unloading a box. “You really bought that conveniently-timed injury?” She was pretty, with darker green eyes and a more casual, mature goth aesthetic, definitely looked more like her youngest brother than Thor. But she had a dark look to her that screamed ‘don’t mess with me or I _ will _call Satan himself from the depths of hell to personally egg your house’. Tony had a feeling he should stay on her good side. 

“I saw him twist it with my own eyes.” Thor defended. 

“That’s how he gets you, dumbass.” 

“Language, Hela.” Frigga reminded her. 

Tony laughed, “Well, we’d be very happy to help either way.” This was as golden an opportunity as it got, directly aiding the object of his interest. Even if the boy was faking an injury to get out of labor, Tony was happy to entertain. 

It was in that moment when the youngest sibling in question stepped over to the gathering group at the back of the truck. Tony felt his breath hitch as those stunning green eyes flashed his way. He quickly turned on the charm. “Hey there, I’m Tony Stark, your personal bellhop for the day.” He dipped his head in a mock bow. 

The boy smirked, hand resting on his torso, and Tony could now see the brace wrapped around his forearm, along with his black-painted nails. “Loki.” His voice was so soft, posh and lovely as he introduced himself. “I’m afraid the only tips I can provide are game exploits.” 

“Honestly that’s a hell of a lot more valuable to me than a fiver.” Tony grinned. 

“I mean, we talkin’ like... Zelda, or WoW?” Rhodey butt in. 

“How about Assassin’s Creed?” Loki offered. 

“Odyssey?” 

“Can be.” 

“Shoot.” 

“You can quick-level by exp-farming custom player stories.” 

“Oh damn, no more grinding?” 

“Shit ton of drachmae too. Have your ship upgraded in no time.” 

“Language, Loki.” Frigga said kindly. 

“Sorry, mum.” 

“Why don’t we get these boxes into the house and we can chat more about video games over lunch?” She suggested. “The movers brought the groceries in that I ordered, I’ll fix us something as soon as the truck is empty. Your father needs to get it back to the dealership so he can pick up our new car.” She glanced warmly at Tony and Rhodey. “Lunch will be my treat for your help.” 

Rhodey beamed. “Game tips _ and _lunch? Hand me the biggest box you got.” 

Tony was out of breath as he heaved a particularly heavy box up the stairs. He had been trying to appear unfazed and macho over the last hour, but the heat and lifting was starting to wear on him. He’d stopped trying to wipe off the sweat that was pooling on his brow by this point. 

“What the hell is in this one?” Tony panted as he dropped the box unceremoniously on the floor of Loki’s bedroom. “Your uranium collection?” 

“Nah, the movers took care of that.” Loki responded slyly. He was busy unpacking a box marked ‘nerd survival gear’, which apparently held all of his computer and gaming equipment. The pair were currently alone in Loki’s as-of-yet rather empty bedroom, as Rhodey had offered to help Thor move the living room furniture around after Frigga had sighed that the movers had put everything in all the wrong places. Right now, all Loki had in his room was a bed, dresser, and desk, aside from all the boxes. Tony had wondered what it would look like when the boy was all unpacked and settled enough to start decorating. You could tell a lot about a person from the look of their bedroom. 

One positive thing he did notice was the location of Loki’s bedroom. It was on the side of the house directly opposite to Tony’s own bedroom. Their windows were directly facing each other. He thought about ways he could take advantage of that. Send a cute little drone to bring a bag of chips to the boy’s window. Build a telescoping bridge so they can sneak over each other’s rooms past curfew... 

The box Tony had just carried up the stairs wasn’t sealed at the top, and before he could halt his impulsive curiosity, he’d pulled back the opening to see what was inside. At first, it was nothing odd. Just a bunch of books of varying sizes and colors. But the longer he looked, he soon realized that this was a very strange, slightly concerning collection. Books on magic and witchcraft, spells, and demon summoning; he noted The Key of Solomon and The Lesser Key of Solomon, the Grand Grimoire, and the Necronomicon, for a few. He supposed he shouldn’t be surprised. These sorts of books are staples in a goth kid’s library, after all. 

“So uh... what grade are you in?” Tony asked absently, inching away from the box of scary books. 

Loki didn’t glance away from attaching cables to his computer monitor. “I’ll be a junior this year.” He cursed under his breath when the monitor didn’t turn on, and pulled the cables to try again. 

Tony wasn’t surprised, considering Loki was clearly younger than Thor, who was to be a senior. But it made him a bit sad to know they wouldn’t be sharing any classes. Oh well, he would see him in the halls at least, and at lunch. Maybe Thor and Loki would join Tony and his friends at their table. He’d make sure to invite them. He was just starting to daydream about playing footsie under the cafeteria table with Loki when he heard a voice call up from downstairs. 

“Lunch is ready!” 

Loki sighed, setting down the wires. “Looks like I’ll be missing the raid.” He pushed himself up to his feet with his good arm and started for the door, glancing at Tony with a slight, cute smile that made his heart flutter. “Come on, then. If I know my mother, we’ll have a feast fit for kings waiting for us.” 

Tony perked up at that, and quickly followed Loki out the door. A feast sounded fantastic after all that hard work. He had no idea what was on the menu, but his mouth was watering already. 

The pair descended the stairs, and headed down the hall towards the kitchen. The new Odinson house was bright and sunny as compared to the last time Tony had been inside for a Beezer fancy dinner party. The renovators had knocked more windows into it and opened up the stairs and hallway, making it far less stuffy. The décor was a more elegant chic with hints of Scandanavian in light, heavenly colors. Tony felt a fresh and cheerful aura emanating all around him, reminding him of Frigga’s warmth. He hoped he’d become good friends with the kids, he’d love to spend more time here. What a difference from the previous ownership; he couldn’t wait to escape the stifling atmosphere back when the old Beezers had the place. 

When he entered the open concept kitchen, he was hit by a summery harvest fragrance and an array of colors splayed across the long, four-seater island. Thor and Rhodey were already seated across from each other, and Hela was rummaging around in the refrigerator. Frigga smiled when she spotted them. 

“We’ve got freshly-squeezed orange-raspberry lemonade, bruschetta, loaded Mediterranean sandwiches with a special sauce of mine, veggies and dip, and salad with watercress, strawberry slices and strawberry dressing.” She explained the spread, waving her hands over it as she spoke. 

“Jesus, you didn’t have to go through all the trouble, Mrs. Odinson.” Tony was near speechless. 

Frigga smiled. “It’s no trouble at all, dear. I love making food, and I'm used to making a lot for Thor’s friends.” Just Thor’s friends? Tony noted. Not Loki’s or Hela’s. Neither of them seemed like easy friend-makers, he supposed. 

“Can you adopt me?” Rhodey asked as he stuffed his face with a sandwich. 

Loki headed over and hopped up onto the stool at the island next to Thor, and Tony followed suit, sitting next to Rhodey and across from Loki. They all soon found themselves laughing over a delicious, summery meal, chatting and getting to know each other and marveling over the incredibly delicious food. Thor was friendly and easy to get along with, seemed to enjoy all of Rhodey’s sassy jokes, and laughed in amusement when Tony and Rhodey poked fun at each other. Frigga had so many questions about the neighborhood, and the two young locals were more than happy to give her insight into her new neighbors’ habits. 

“I imagine you’ll be meeting Mrs. Johnson soon.” Tony noted. “She’s the older lady across the street from me. She’s sweet, but a bit of a busybody. She’ll probably be over tonight with a bag of overbaked cookies as an excuse to poke her nose in here.” 

Frigga laughed at that. “I know the type. I’ll have to give her some good gossip to chew on.” 

“She’s the one with the ugly letterbox?” Loki asked. 

“Oh, yeah. The infamous mailbox.” Tony laughed. The old woman’s mailbox was massive, with obnoxious colors in an overly ornate style. Ornate could be beautiful, but there was just far too much going on in this mailbox. On the smooth portions were painted cherubs with kind of creepy faces on top of a bright teal background, and the massive cherub statue that sat upon the top of the mailbox had eyes of horror and chipping paint. It was a garish thing that many in the neighborhood were convinced was going to come to life and murder them all in their sleep. It’s not surprising the thing hadn’t escaped Loki’s notice on the very first day. 

Hela and Loki were both rather quiet, and only really nibbled at the food in front of them. Hela was leaning against the far counter, out of the conversation, sipping on a glass of red wine with her bruschetta. At one point, she got into an argument with Thor that Frigga had to break up, and Tony got the impression the pair didn’t get along very well. They both seemed to stiffen in each other's presence, and looked for any opportunity to figuratively (and sometimes literally) step on each other's toes. Tony was curious if it was more than simple sibling rivalry, since neither of them seemed particularly indignant towards Loki. Hela was as sharp-tongued and quick to tease towards her youngest brother as she was to everyone, but Tony could see the warmth in her eyes when she looked at him. She even ruffled his hair as she walked past to head back to her room, to which Loki grumbled and spent a minute readjusting his hair. 

“So, have you boys decided on your major for next year yet?” Frigga asked, leaning against the end of the island. 

“Engineering for sure.” Tony said after he had swallowed a sip of that mouth-achingly tangy fresh lemonade. “Considering my father’s company and that engine I invented, I’ve already got the scholarships for it, and investors ready to back my future projects.” 

“Impressive!” Frigga beamed. “And how about you, James?” 

“I’m not really sure yet.” Rhodey sighed. “I’ve been considering skipping the whole college idea and going straight for the Air Force.” 

“And miss out on the parties?” Tony pouted, a light-hearted argument he made every time Rhodey brought this up. He wanted Rhodey to follow his dreams, but he just couldn’t imagine going through college without his best friend. 

“Yeah well, I’ll keep thinkin’ about it.” Rhodey shrugged, then glanced at Thor. “What about you, big guy?” 

“I am hoping to gain an American Football scholarship.” Thor explained. “My coach back in England said that I have a good chance at making the big leagues here. Perhaps the NFL!” 

“So you guys came right from England, then?” Tony asked curiously. “What made you move here?” 

“My husband runs a cybersecurity company.” Frigga explained. “They recently made the decision to move the headquarters here, and he decided it would be in all of our best interests to move the family as well rather than flying out all the time.” 

“Oh? Which company?” 

“Asgard Inc.” 

Tony raised his eyebrows. “My father’s company works with Asgard software. But then, I suppose most do, considering its currently in the lead.” 

Frigga nodded. “My daughter works at Asgard as well. Perhaps someday, when she is running the company, and you are running your father’s, the two of you will work together.” She smiled. 

Tony couldn’t help but feel slightly frightened of that aspect, and made a note to try to get on Hela’s good side early in the event that future takes place. He glanced over at Loki, who was carefully dissecting a tomato. “Do you know what you want to do yet, Loki?” 

“Mm, some kind of biology maybe. Or software design? I like hacking shit-” That earned a scolding from Frigga, “-both organic and digital. Maybe I’ll do both. Mix them together. Start my own line of cyborg birds to convince everyone the Birds Aren’t Real movement was right all along.” 

Tony nearly choked on his lemonade. 

“You hack games, then?” Rhodey asked. “That how you know about game exploits?” 

“Sure. Call it cheating, but for me, its not about winning. I like to see how far I can push the framework, manipulate it to my will. Turning game engines into my own personal sandbox.” 

“He says that,” Thor jut in with an annoyed tone, “but then he uses this secret knowledge to smite me in two-player games.” 

Loki smirked. “I have to be better than you at _ something _.” 

Tony laughed, “Well, hey. Maybe we’ll work together someday too. Manufacturing organic tech or something.” 

“We can bioengineer a low-cost, self-reproducing method of preparing Mars for colonization.” Loki mused; a fantastical idea for such a casual tone of voice as he stripped a tomato seed with the sharp end of a safety pin. 

“Jeez, those are some astronomical goals.” 

“At the core, the only thing limiting us as a species is our current system of economics. Otherwise, anything is possible.” 

“What about natural resource limits?” 

“Once we get our collective foot out into space, there will be limitless new worlds and asteroids to harvest resources from.” 

Eyebrows raised, Tony looked the boy over thoughtfully. Beautiful, intelligent, a little scary, with lofty goals that had the potential to push the limits on their civilization? This kid was the whole package for a likeminded person such as Tony. Loki saw a game’s framework as something to be pushed and manipulated, and it appeared that was also how he thought of the world around him. Seemed like the kind of kid that would hack the school database and jumble everyone’s grades just to prove a point. Tony had lofty ideas as well. He liked to push the bounds of technology. When he had an idea, he made it happen, no matter what it took. He could help Loki made his ideas happen. With fathers currently leading the world in compatible fields, influence and money behind their names, the pair of them had the potential to be a power couple, he couldn’t help but muse. Thinking a bit too far ahead, sure. But that’s how Tony’s brain worked. It was always on hyperdrive. He didn’t entertain limits, especially social ones. 

“Alright, nerds.” Rhodey scoffed. “So what do ya’ll like to do for fun other than video games?” 

“I enjoy playing sports.” Thor offered. “Any kind, really.” 

“Well that’s good.” Rhodey nodded. “This neighborhood plays frisbee, flag football and soccer- ah, well I guess you guys call that football? But uh, we play all the time in the park at the end of the block.” 

“Oh, fantastic!” Frigga beamed. “You’ll have your sports and make new friends in no time, dear.” 

“That will certainly help the transition.” Thor nodded with a smile. “I used to play sports and work out with my old friends all the time.” 

“I know a couple of people you’ll get right along with.” Rhodey grinned. 

“Steve and Carol?” Tony guessed. 

“They’ll be best buddies by the end of summer.” Rhodey turned to Loki. “What about you? You don’t seem the sports type.” 

Loki shrugged. “I’ll watch Thor play, but I prefer books myself.” 

“The library is within walking distance.” Tony told him. “It’s used by the university so it’s a big one, has an extensive range of material and a lot of rare editions.” 

Loki perked up at that. “Oh?” 

“I can take you there tomorrow, if you like.” Tony offered. He didn’t much care for books, personally. No CTRL+F or easy scrolling. But Tony liked to visit for the quiet and the digital library. And a library date with the cute new neighbor sounded great to him. 

“Sounds good.” Loki agreed to the plan. Tony fistbumped internally. 

“The gang is playing some frisbee tomorrow, too.” Rhodey said. “3PM if you wanna join.” 

“I will be there!” Thor beamed. 

They went on to chat about the other kids their age in the neighborhood, the ones Thor would meet tomorrow and be going to school with in a few weeks. Loki listened in for a while, until they started talking less about the people and more about sports, and he soon took his phone out to absently play some mobile game. Tony tried to stick with the conversation out of politeness, but his mind wandered, as it tended to do with subjects that didn’t wholly interest him. Instead, he was thinking about Loki. The boy was intelligent, and he wondered how far that went. Would he have any interest in Tony’s projects, or would they be outside of his technological scope? He longed for someone to chat about his projects with. Well, he did have Bruce. Bruce kept up with him on most subjects. But chatting about his projects with someone he had a crush on and having them actually keep up would be a whole new experience. 

But, he was getting ahead of himself again. For now, he was just looking forward to what tomorrow would bring. 

\-- 

It was 10AM by the time Tony was ready to roll out of his house. He put effort into his look today in a way that made it seem like he hadn’t actually put any effort in yet still came off as naturally attractive. Nice clothes, but not too nice; muted blue button-up with the sleeves rolled and the top two buttons undone, nice dark gray jeans. Subtle cologne, fixed hair with just enough messiness to come off as ‘I woke up this way’. He wanted to look good, but he didn’t want to look like he was trying too hard to impress. You know, the whole game. This wasn’t his first rodeo. 

Now, belly sated with jelly toast that he had fixed himself, Tony headed out the door. The sky was mostly overcast, and the temperature felt far more bearable than yesterday. The morning air was pleasantly crisp as he breathed it in through his nose. 

Well, until the smell of garlic hit him like a cement truck. 

“What the fuck...?” Tony scrunched his nose. Garlic was normally a beautiful smell, but this was so overpowering it was making him nauseous. 

“Language, dear!” Came a kindly voice. Tony glanced across the street and spotted Mrs. Johnson watering her garden beds. 

“Sorry, Mrs. Johnson.” Tony apologized. “Did a garlic bread truck crash around here or something?” He asked, heading across the street towards her. As he passed by the old woman’s mailbox, he could have sworn those beady little cherub eyes were following him. 

“I wish.” The elderly woman grimaced. “It’s the water, I think. As soon as I turned the hose on this morning, everything smelled like garlic!” 

Tony was mystified. “That’s never happened before, has it?” 

“Not that I can remember! I thought maybe if I ran the hose for a bit it would wash out, but it’s only gotten stronger.” 

“Weird. Maybe something got into the water supply. You should call the water company today.” 

“I will, dear. Now don’t you look nice today? Doing something special?” She smiled sweetly, but Tony knew that wolfish hunger in her eyes for information. Nothing made it past her. You could cut your hair a 16th of an inch shorter and she would notice. Tony didn’t doubt she kept a little book of all his past relationships tucked away. 

“Just going into town.” Tony said casually. “Helping the new neighbors get settled.” 

“Oh yes, I introduced myself last night. That boy Loki sure is a pretty one, isn’t he?” She had a mischievous glint in her eyes. “Dresses a bit dark, though. He’d look much better if he combed his hair back out of his face.” 

Damn old lady figured him out in two seconds flat, Tony nearly cursed under his breath. She better not say anything to embarrass him. Wouldn’t be the first time. 

“Sure. I told him I’d show him where the library is today.” 

Mrs. Johnson nodded as though her suspicions had just been confirmed. “Seems like a smart boy. Just like you, hm?” 

Tony bit his tongue to keep from groaning as he began to back away. “Oh yes, very smart. You have a nice day, Mrs. Johnson. Don’t forget to call the water company, okay?” 

“Of course, dear. Enjoy your date!” 

“It’s not a- oh... nevermind.” Tony sighed as he headed over to the Odinson household. 

He made his way up the steps, across the porch and over to the door, trying not to let his busybody neighbor irk him as he rang the doorbell. He only had to wait a few moments until the door was opened. 

“Yes?” The grizzled voice of the Odinson family paternal figure emerged, the doorway filled with his imposing frame. His expression was serious, and borderline annoyed. His one eye fixed Tony with a gaze that screamed ‘don’t waste my time’. Tony felt himself shrink a bit. 

“Oh, uh... good morning, Mr. Odinson.” He forced out. _ Be professional, Tony _, he coached himself. He wanted to make a good impression on Loki’s father and the owner of an important Stark Industries business partner. “I’m Tony Stark, I live next door.” He extended a hand in greeting. 

Odin stared at him for an uncomfortable moment before finally reaching out and shaking his hand firmly. “You’re Howard’s son.” 

“I am, yes.” 

“Is this a social call, boy? Or did you need something? Sugar, perhaps?” The pleasant dripped with poison. A formal, professional tone born of necessity, but beneath it, Tony read his request to get to the point loud and clear. 

“I’m here to pick up your son, sir.” Tony cleared the nervousness from his throat. “I told Loki I would show him the library today.” 

The man almost looked relieved. “Ah, good. Get that boy out of the house for a change.” Odin turned inward, glancing up the staircase behind him. “Loki!” He barked. “The Stark boy is here for you.” 

Tony heard a faint confirmation coming from upstairs. Odin glanced back and nodded curtly at Tony before turning and heading back into the house, leaving the door open as footsteps gingerly descended down the staircase. In seconds, Loki appeared, and Tony instantly felt a mixture of stunned and upstaged. The boy was wearing black, fitted pants slightly rolled at the ankles and dark brown oxfords. His dark green green short-sleeve button-up brought a pop of color under his black vest. His wavy hair was immaculately styled, and his green eyes popped against his pale skin. He still wore that gray wrist brace, and his black fingernails looked freshly painted from yesterday. 

Did he always look this good, or was he trying to impress? Either way, Tony swallowed down an impulse to spit out a, _ ‘ _ _ daaaaaamn _ _ ’ _. 

“Ready.” Loki said as he stepped out the door, pulling it closed behind him. 

Tony shook off his starstruck daze and smiled charmingly at him. “Good morning. How was the first night in the new room?” 

“Pretty sure the ghost of Mr. Beezer was trying to communicate, so that kept me up a bit. But hopefully I’ll figure out what he wants and we can get him out of here soon.” Tony couldn’t tell if Loki was joking or not. “Do I smell garlic?” 

“Oh, yeah... something weird is going on with the water.” Tony blinked and glanced over at Mrs. Johnson who was still out in her yard, waving at them a bit too enthusiastically. “I swear this isn’t something that typically happens around here.” He assured. 

“Mm, I suppose we’ll see about that.” Loki’s green eyed glinted mischievously, and he started off the porch. Tony stared at him, deeply puzzled, before following suit. 

“You weren’t exaggerating.” Loki’s eyes were filled with wonder as he spun around the library in all directions. “This place is _ huge _!” 

Tony grinned, watching the boy take in the scene around him. It was adorable, how wide his eyes had gotten. The walk to the library had taken about fifteen minutes, and they’d spent the trip chatting about how it had been moving to a new country, how Loki liked America so far, how he felt about leaving his home; the typical. Loki noted that he hadn’t been overly attached to the city he had lived in previously, as most of his friends were people he’d met via online gaming, so it wasn’t like he was leaving anyone behind. He said it was hardest on Thor, who had a good group of friends back in England. Loki didn’t mind not having to see them again, though. They apparently weren’t very nice to him. 

Now, though, Loki was entirely focused on browsing the library’s index, and running around like a kid in a candy shop. “Oh my _ gods _is that a copy of the Kydrr Codex?” He was pressing his nose against the glass in the rare tomes collection. 

Tony chuckled, “The what?” 

“One of very few early-century books in the world that are entirely undecipherable yet believed to be an actual coded language.” Loki’s voice had raised a pitch in excitement. Thankfully, there was no one around to shush him at the moment. “Like the Voynich Manuscript and the Rohonc Codex. It was discovered more recently, only four copies were found in secret collections. The illustrations indicate themes reminiscent of alchemy, herbology, spellwork and demonology.” 

“Like a full year at Hogwarts but you can’t read it?” 

Loki laughed at that. “Basically.” He sighed happily. “I can’t believe they have one here. What I wouldn’t give to understand those letters.” 

“Maybe you’ll be the one to crack the code someday.” 

“If I did, I’d keep it to myself. That book promises to make you the most powerful sorcerer in the world, I can feel it.” 

“Well, you’ll tell me at least, right?” Tony entertained the idea playfully, really just with the intention to subtly flirt. “I mean, what’s the point of being the world’s most powerful sorcerer if you can’t show off your moves to someone?” 

Loki actually looked considerate of that statement, glancing over at Tony thoughtfully. “Fair point. Kind of like how murderers want recognition.” 

Tony blinked at that. 

“So, do you come here much?” Loki asked, turning away from the Codex with one last, longing gaze and leaning against the wall. 

“Is that a pickup line?” 

“If you want it to be.” 

Tony grinned. Oh, he did want it to be. But he decided to let that slide for now in favor of continuing the conversation. “I come here now and then, when I want to get away from home to work on my projects in enforced silence.” 

“Mood. So... I know you designed that new type of car engine everyone’s trying to put in their vehicles. But what other projects are you working on?” 

Exactly the question Tony hoped to hear at some point. “I've got a variety of random mechanical projects, but right now I’m focusing most of my attention on an AI program.” 

Loki seemed genuinely intrigued, which served to inflate Tony further. “On a scale of HAL to Skynet, how scared should I be?” 

“Well, I’m designing him to essentially be a digital butler, and eventually control smart home devices, so probably a little closer to HAL if he didn’t have control to life support.” 

“I mean, he could turn the heat up and roast you alive if he wanted to.” 

“I’ll pull a full Kirk and make him so confused he self-destructs before it gets that far.” 

The pair of them talked on this subject for a while, Loki asking informed questions on the programming specifics, which was elating to Tony. He was thrilled to discover this was so much better than he had hoped; Loki didn’t just keep up, he knew enough about the subject to ask questions and make suggestions that even Tony hadn’t thought of. He seemed genuinely interested and excited about the project, furthering Tony’s own excitement. It was fantastic, gazing into those beautiful eyes and seeing that same spark for exploration and discovery that he felt inside himself. 

Eventually, a librarian came over to tell them they needed to go sit down and read quietly or find somewhere else to chat. So Tony, respecting the librarian’s wishes, asked if Loki wanted to go get ice cream and continue the conversation elsewhere. Loki agreed, since anyone not lactose intolerant who refuses ice cream is frankly a madman. 

So now the pair sat across a booth from each other in a cute little diner down the street a quick jaunt, each with a cup of ice cream with a cone stuck on top, because that’s actually the very best way to order ice cream. Tony didn’t know why he hadn’t thought of it before when Loki answered the question ‘cup or cone?’ with ‘both’. You still get the joys of eating the cone without having to worry about eating your ice cream before it melts. Grade A genius life hack right there. Tony had gotten a traditional chocolate vanilla swirl soft serve; smooth and refreshing. Loki had gotten an absolutely loaded birthday cake flavored hand-dipped, and Tony had never seen so many toppings on one medium-cone in his life. 

“How many different forms of sugar do you think are in that Frankenstein's monster of yours?” Tony asked in wonder. 

“Are we counting things with lactose?” 

“Might as well.” 

“11.” 

Tony grinned. Seemed like Loki’s brain worked as fast as his own. It was lonely in a world on hyperdrive, nice to have someone to cruise alongside you. Especially when that person is an adorable sugar junkie with a slightly concerning interest in the occult gracefully managing not to get that ice cream all over himself. 

“So...” Loki set his spoon down and folded his hands. “What can I expect to call our future digital overlord?” 

Tony smirked, meeting Loki’s gaze evenly. “I’ve had an idea mulling about. I said I thought of him kind of like a digital butler, so he’s gotta have a butler name.” 

“Jeeves?” 

“Close. I was thinking JARVIS.” 

“I like that better.” 

“It’s a backronym, too.” 

“Are you going to make me guess?” 

“I can if you want.” 

“Maybe if I didn’t have an ice cream headache.” 

Tony chuckled. “Just A Very Intelligent System.” He explained. 

Loki grinned. “We’ll see about that. I don’t suppose you’ll let me have a peek at the WIP, or would you have to kill me for seeing trade secrets?” 

“I might have to imprison you, but I'll feed you sugar.” 

“I don’t see a downside to this.” 

They chatted on programming for a bit, before delving into video games and what Loki likes to do for fun. There was a wide variety of games that Loki enjoyed, including a few MMO’s that he played regularly with online friends. His team was in the top running for raid scores in one such game. He liked to mod, datamine, hack and search for cheats and exploits. He was good at figuring out how to work the system within game rules as well, and he was able to farm for EXP and items so efficiently that he actually made a decent side hustle off of gathering items and levelling characters for other people. Because apparently people will pay for that kind of thing. 

“Ah, don’t mention that to my family, though.” Loki noted sheepishly. “That’s my secret money.” Tony was equally surprised Loki would divulge something like that to someone he just met yesterday as he was proud to be the one privy to secret Loki information. Maybe it was an indication the boy liked him back. He really hoped so. 

Suddenly, a Daft Punk song started playing, and Loki glanced down at his phone. His wallpaper was of Hermaeus Mora, Tony noted. 

“Have we been out that long?” Loki wondered, swiping the notification from his screen. “I need to head back, raid in half an hour and my team will boot me if I miss another.” 

Tony nodded in understanding. “I’ll bet they’d fall apart without you. Let’s get you back.” 

As they got up from the booth and headed out of the diner, Tony felt a bit sad at the idea of their day ending already. He genuinely enjoyed Loki’s company, and not just because he was easy on the eyes. He was clever, funny, and easy to be himself around; Tony couldn’t say that about most people. But there was plenty more time to spend together, during summer and Tony’s final high school year, and he had a lot of ideas to make the most of it. 

Loki wandered into the house, seemingly empty at the moment. It was only day two, so of course he thought of it more as _ ‘the _ house’ than _ ‘his _ house’. He could see the warm touch of his mother everywhere he looked, but until he was able to confidently walk downstairs in the dark for some late - night snacks to get him through a raid without worrying about tripping over a chair, it wouldn’t be ‘ _ his _ house’. 

“How’s the outside world?” Came a voice from the living room as he went to walk past. 

Loki stopped and turned, heading into the room to find Hela draped across the couch swirling a nearly-empty cup of wine. “Warm, sunny, full of friendly people. You’d hate it.” Loki smirked. 

Hela laughed, moving to sit up and look more closely at her little brother. “And how was your date?” She had a mischievous glint in her green eyes. 

Loki didn’t correct her. Hela wasn’t the sort of person you bother trying that with. “They have a copy of the Kydrr Codex at the library and he bought me ice cream, so I’d say pretty damn good.” 

Hela smirked as she drained the last of her wine. “Where’s my invite to the wedding?” 

Loki rolled his eyes. “Come on, Hela. I’m sure he’s just being neighborly.” 

“Oh, please.” Hela rolled her eyes and pushed herself up to her feet. She started out of the living room in the direction of the kitchen, pinching Loki’s cheek as she passed him. “All he did yesterday at lunch was stare at you. He's totally into you.” Loki couldn’t help a little flutter in his stomach at that idea, as he followed his sister into the kitchen. Tony Stark was super hot, super smart, and had an attractive personality. He was probably the most popular guy in school and desired by everyone. Loki hadn’t been able to help developing a small crush the first day of interacting with him. To have a guy like that like him back? That was fantasy material. He found himself daydreaming, imagining pulling up to his new high school on the first day in the passenger seat of a fancy sports car driven by the most popular guy in school, everyone staring and wondering ‘who’s this exotic foreigner with _ Tony Stark _?’. 

Hela must have noticed a dreamy expression in his eyes, because she sighed as she started pouring a new glass of wine. “Just look out for your heart, kid. Tony Stark is a mega-rich only-child of a very powerful man, and he sees someone he finds pretty. He’s used to getting whatever he wants and tossing it away when he’s done with it. If that’s what you want, then fine; but don’t fool yourself into thinking he’s some fairy tale prince about to sweep you off your feet.” 

Loki nodded. He knew his sister was just looking out for him, but he wasn’t born yesterday. Tony probably dated supermodels. And if Loki was just the next shiny object of his temporary desire, he wouldn’t waste any tears over it. “That’s why I’m trying to prove I’m more than just a pretty face.” Loki said. “Being intelligent as he is... as _ we _are. It’s lonely. If he’s more than just tech smart, he’ll realize I’m worth more than a simple fling.” 

Hela looked at him thoughtfully as she sipped her wine, leaning against the counter. “We’ll see. Just be careful, alright?” 

Loki dipped his head as he started taking steps to exit the kitchen. 

“You know I always am.” 

\-- 

Tony didn’t see much of Loki over the next couple of days, and he was starting to itch over it. He’d spent most of the time hanging out with Rhodey, but even his best friend commented on the fact that he seemed distracted. Moreso than usual, anyway. 

But as he was sitting out on his porch working on project blueprints with his tablet the second afternoon, he looked up at the sound of a door opening to see the boy, stylish as ever, following his mother out to the car. Loki glanced over, so Tony gave him a smile and a wave. When Loki responded by wandering over, Tony asked, “Whatchya been up to? 48-hour raid?” 

“Gods, _ so _much unpacking.” The boy groaned, arms crossed. “I have cardboard cuts on my cardboard cuts.” 

Tony laughed, “I can come over and help, if you want. Teach those boxes a lesson for messing around with you.” 

“Thanks for the offer, but its finally done. My mother’s taking me décor shopping now.” He sighed as he glanced back at the car. Frigga had the driver’s side door open, and was checking something on her phone. Probably a shopping list. 

“That’s the fun part.” 

“Not when your mum prefers the opposite of your aesthetic.” 

“If you need me to help you paint your walls black after your mom paints them yellow, I think I have a few buckets lying around.” 

Loki grinned. “Might take you up on that. How’s JARVIS coming along?” 

Tony leaned back, setting his tablet down. He was pleased Loki remembered the name. “I think I’m ready to work on the language specifics, picking out a voice soon. You can come over and help me choose tonight, if you have time.” He kept his voice casual, but in all honesty, Tony had been holding off on this particular part of the project in hopes that he could get Loki to join him for it. 

“I’ll sneak out the bathroom window at 8.” Loki agreed. 

Tony’s heart leapt a little. “It’s a date.” He couldn’t help but say. 

Before Loki could respond to that, they heard Frigga’s voice calling him from the car. Loki sighed, “Better go get this over with. See you later?” 

“I’ll be here.” Tony promised with a charming smile. 

With that, Loki dipped his head in farewell and headed back to the car. Tony waited until the car was well out of sight before he leapt to his feet and made a mad dash into the house to start cleaning his room and workshop as fast as humanly possible. 

By 8:30PM, Tony was starting to feel depressed as he lay on his couch. There hadn’t been any sign of Loki so far. Not even a text... though he did realize they never actually exchanged phone numbers, so he couldn’t really blame him there. He made a mental note to rectify that next time he saw the boy. He had a whole folder of science, game and programming memes on his phone he thought Loki would enjoy. He’d need a number to text those to. That’s how you woo people these days, after all. Dude with the best meme game got the prize. 

He was about ready to give up on the idea that Loki was coming when he heard a knock on the back porch door. He shot up into a sitting position and blinked, looking over. There stood Loki behind the sliding door, in the moonlit dark, giving him a little wave through the glass. Tony pushed himself to his feet and strode over, unlocking the door and sliding it back. 

“How the hell did you get into the backyard...?” Tony asked in wonder. 

Loki shrugged, not waiting to be invited in, and walked past Tony into the house. “Climbed the fence.” 

Tony stared at him for a long moment before shutting the glass door behind them. The fence that surrounded his back yard was extremely tall and made of smooth wooden planks pressed together. How on earth had he managed to climb that? And with a sprained wrist, no less? “Why didn’t you just... come to the front door? Like a normal human?” He asked instead. 

“I’d have had to walk past the living room window. My father wasn't going to let me out of the house this close to his dumb curfew.” Loki wandered the living room, looking around curiously. “I see your parents are into Feng Shui.” 

Tony stifled a laugh. “Alright, I know you didn’t parkour yourself here just to admire my coffee table. Shall we?” 

“In a hurry to get me to your bedroom?” 

“I- w- uh...” 

“I’m kidding.” Loki grinned, waving his arm ahead of him. “Lead the way to the digital nursery. Let’s see this baby of yours.” 

Tony swallowed and nodded, starting off towards the stairs that lead to his workshop, dearly hoping he wasn’t blushing right now. That off comment of Loki’s had set off a chain reaction of fantasies on hyperdrive in his brain that needed to be shoved into a box _ right now _ or there would be awkward consequences. Tony never got this way with anyone, and it was rather confusing. He was always so suave, even with the hottest supermodels and celebrities. What was it about Loki that made him trip over his tongue? He knew it wasn’t just his looks alone. 

As they descended the stairs, Tony in the lead, Loki spoke up, “Where are your parents, anyway?” 

Tony had been expecting that question at some point. “On a business trip, as always. They’ll be back at the end of the week, so they say.” He rolled his eyes. 

Loki nodded, but said nothing. He looked thoughtful. 

They soon reached the basement, which Tony had converted to a workshop many years ago. The floor and walls were still unfinished cement, but it was better that way. Why bother finishing something that was just going to get covered in burn streaks and paint splatter? The room was filled with worktables, shelves covered in components, power tools, a few computers, and so much more. Really everything an aspiring engineer could ever dream to have. Loki’s green eyes had gone wider than they had in the library. 

“Holy _ shit _ .” The boy wandered in, running his fingers gingerly along one of the work tables as he cast his gaze in every direction. “This is... _ gods _ .” He had a wide grin on his face and eyes full of wonder. “I can’t believe you have this in your _ house _!” 

Tony smiled proudly. “Pretty sexy, yeah?” 

“Can I live here?” 

Tony laughed, “You’re small, I’m sure you can squeeze into some corner.” 

“Just give me a dog bed and I’d be dandy.” Loki sat down in Tony’s favorite rolling chair and spun around slowly, continuing to look around. After a moment, he clapped his hands together, “Alright, I could gush all night, so let’s see it.” 

Tony walked over, grabbed the back of the rolling chair and began pushing it with Loki onboard towards a different desk. “Right this way, monsieur.” 

“Damn, you have a taxi service down here and everything.” Loki said, enjoying the ride. 

This desk had five monitors of varying sizes across it, three keyboards and a river of wires running down. Tony hit a key and all the monitors lit up, displaying lines of code. Loki’s eyes glowed in the light of the monitors as he gazed at them, tilting his head ever so slightly to scan the symbols in front of him. Tony handed him a mouse to let him scroll through for a while. 

“This is the most complex neural network I’ve ever seen.” Loki breathed in wonder. “I mean, I’ve looked over a lot of theoreticals, but you actually managed to flesh this out...” 

Tony swelled with pride. He was quite pleased by the fact that he had managed to impress Loki, to be the cause for that explorative look on his face right now. The pair soon launched into a discussion, Loki pointing out areas of code he wanted to talk about. They said a lot of technical things that I’m not even gonna attempt to BS because frankly I don't know squat about programming. To Tony’s surprise, Loki actually even had pointers to improve certain areas. Brought up angles Tony hadn’t even thought of. At one point, Loki jumped up to go draw out a visual on the nearby whiteboard, and Tony started wondering if he was dreaming. His ideas were so on the mark, Tony didn’t waste time in plugging them right into the program. 

After a while, Loki leaned over the desk to look at one monitor more closely, but then winced and pulled his arm back like it had been bitten by a snake. 

Tony’s brows knitted in concern. “Arm still bothering you?” 

Loki sighed and massaged his arm just below the brace. “It was doing better, but I aggravated it unboxing, and that climb over the fence didn’t help.” He shook his head and sat back down in the chair. If he was faking the injury like his sister thought, he was going above and beyond with it. Tony was quite convinced by this point that it was real. “Anyway, you said you were ready to pick out a voice for him?” 

“Ah, right!” Tony walked over and grabbed another chair, dragging it over and sitting down in front of one of the keyboards. He hit a few keys and brought up the natural voice system database. “So, since he’s a butler, and he’s JARVIS-” 

“British accent?” 

Tony grinned. “Exactly. I figure you’d be good at picking the most posh-sounding one.” 

“You won’t want it _ too _posh. You don’t want a butler sounding condescending.” 

“Ah, fair point.” 

Loki lifted his arm in a way that mocked a waiter at a fancy restaurant, “Might I recommend the ‘Paul’ voice,” he said, hamming up his own accent, “a light, sparkling posh with undertones of humble wit and a lingering taste of sarcasm.” 

Tony laughed, “Familiar with the voice database, then?” 

“I’ve used my fair share for video voiceover.” Loki confirmed. “Paul was excellent for my nature mockumentary studying the wild behaviors of teenage elder sisters.” 

“Well, let’s load it in and see how he sounds.” Tony plugged in the voice and exported the program. After a few moments, he addressed the room, in which he had installed audio readers that fed into JARVIS. “Voice test, JARVIS.” 

Within moments, a voice came from the air, “Good evening, master Stark.” 

Tony felt a shiver run up his spine. He’d listened to a few samples of other voices in earlier days, but none of them had sounded quite right. They made a program feel like... just a program. But this voice? This one was _ perfect _ . This felt like the digital butler he wanted. This felt like _ JARVIS _. 

“God, you were spot on.” Tony’s eyes were wide as he glanced back at Loki. 

The boy had a warm smile on his face as he gazed back at him. “Beautiful.” He said. 

Beautiful, yes. Tony felt himself melt a little bit, sharing this momentous occasion with a boy so beautiful in body and mind. He felt like they had a connection he’d never shared with anyone before. On their own level, they could work side-by-side with a cohesion he never thought possible. He wanted more of this. More of this night. Sitting there together, working on this program together. Sharing each other’s space. He felt like they could do this forever. 

“You should come here more often.” He felt himself say. Then felt a bit embarrassed when he realized he’d said it out loud. 

Loki tilted his head. “You offering me lab access?” 

“Oh, yes.” Tony nodded enthusiastically. “If you wanna work on your own projects, I have like... at least two of everything.” 

“I might take you up on that. I could datamine in seconds with these monsters you’ve got down here.” 

“Plenty of space for other projects too.” Tony pressed. “You said you like biology? I can get you equipment for that line of work too. Stark Industries has access to pretty much anything you’d ever want.” 

Loki’s eyes shone at the possibilities. “I am _ definitely _taking you up on that.” 

Tony was working hard to contain his excitement. “Text me a list sometime.” 

“Heh, slick.” Loki took out his phone, unlocked it, typed something in and handed it to Tony to put his number into. 

Tony took it and noted with a smirk that Loki had put him in as ‘nerd next door’. He typed his number in and handed it back. “Off-topic, but are you coming to the soccer match tomorrow?” 

“Yeah, told Thor I’d come watch.” Tony was pleased about that. Nothing quite like showing off your physical prowess to your crush. “Alright, I better get home before someone realizes I haven’t been taking a 2-hour bath.” 

Tony glanced at the clock with surprise. Had they been down here that long? “Right. Let’s find a way back that doesn’t involve re-spraining your wrist this time, eh?” 

“A couple of intelligent folks like ourselves should be able to figure that out.” Loki grinned. 

Tony led the way up the stairs, and towards the back door. Loki waited on the porch while Tony fished out a collapsible ladder from the shed and brought it over to the fence. He locked half of it in place, and then pushed it up and hooked it over the top to allow the rest of the rungs to hang over onto the other side. 

“Adieu mon ami.” Loki saluted, before hoisting himself up the ladder with his good arm while Tony held it steady. He climbed up as nimbly as a professional cat burglar, swung his legs over when he reached the top, and Tony heard steps down the other side of the ladder before a gentle thud into the grass below. He heard a knock of farewell on the fence, and the boy was gone, leaving Tony smiling in the darkness. 

\-- 

The next day, Tony walked down the street towards the grassy field at the end of the block. It was sunny, but not suffocatingly hot like it had been all week. Cool enough for running around without passing out of heat stroke. Good for a few hours of sports. Tony was in his full soccer gear, cleats clicking on the pavement as he strode along. Although Tony was no jock, he did enjoy the exercise, the camaraderie and the excuse to get out of the house that came with the game. Plus, he could be a competitive person. Especially when someone cute was watching. 

Almost everyone was there already, in that sunny grass field lined with lush trees, a goal net at each end. Steve, Clint, Sam, Stephen, Bucky, Scott, Rhodey and Carol, and many other kids of the neighborhood, were warming up across the field. A small crowd of others; younger kids, college-age, or those who just didn’t do sports; hung around the outer edges to watch, most with lawn chairs, sharing drinks from a cooler. He saw Bruce in that crowd, talking to little 5-year-old Peter Parker. Both Tony and Bruce loved that kid; he was a tiny genius and sharp as a nail, although easily distracted like most little kids. 

Tony saw Thor, so he looked around for Loki as he crossed the field. He spotted the boy easily, there in the sideline crowd; a dark void in the daylight, it was a wonder he didn’t overheat dressed like that all the time. But he seemed comfortable, not a drop of sweat on his forehead as he stood there chatting with Natasha. Nat was dressed up in her soccer gear, but it seemed she was more interested in talking to the newcomer than warming up like the rest. Made sense; they were both a bit dark. Tony could see them becoming good friends. 

He jogged up to greet them, trying not to be obvious about his ogling Loki; Natasha was observant, and would find a way to use that against him. “Aren’t you dying in that?” Tony asked the boy. He was wearing a black Assassin’s Creed t-shirt and black fitted pants today. 

Loki shrugged. “I run cold.” Tony stored that little bit of information away. Maybe they’d get a cliché but cute jacket-borrowing scenario out of it in the colder months ahead. Loki turned back to Natasha, “So yeah, if you’re still struggling with Medusa after you try that, I can stop in and get you through it.” 

“Honestly, that would be golden.” Natasha sighed. “I love the game, but the mechanics in that one fight are killing me.” 

“Let’s go! Tony, Nat!” Steve called from across the field. 

Natasha glanced at Tony and nodded, “Let’s go kill these guys.” With that, she turned and headed to where her team was assembling. 

Tony smiled at Loki, “Wish me luck?” 

“I’d say you don’t need it, but I haven’t seen you in action yet.” Loki noted. “So good luck.” 

Tony grinned, and turned to follow after Natasha. Their team, the Avengers, would be facing the Guardians; made up of the other half of the neighborhood that included Peter Quill, Gamora, the super tall kid Groot and his best friend the short but aggressive one they all called Rocket, and Drax, who looked way too big and buff for a high schooler but they had yet to prove he was on steroids. The Avengers were behind on a couple of wins for the season so far, but they still had a chance to catch up before school started; which was the agreed end to the neighborhood sports season in favor of school sports and having time for homework. 

“You played this a lot in England, right Thor?” Carol was asking the other blonde. 

“All the time!” Thor said enthusiastically. “You can count on me.” 

Tony certainly felt safer with the large boy on his team. He felt like they were all lucky that one of their more casual players had agreed to step aside for the newcomer. And he proved to be a boon for certain. As the game went on, Thor was quickly becoming a star player, and the ball was passed to him often. He was strong and fast and reliably accurate. He was getting the most goal attempts, and scored the first of the game. Tony wasn’t about to be completely upstaged, however. He was spending the whole game trying to show off for Loki, who he noticed was watching from beside Bruce and Peter, apparently having had introduced himself. He got fancy with his trick shots and worked hard to compete with the titans. He was no Thor, Steve or Carol, but he liked to think he was holding his own out there, and hoped Loki noticed. Boys, amiright? 

When the Avengers ended in a win, everyone cheered the newcomer Thor. They were all so energized and motivated by his success during the game, sharing in the glory, that they had all worked harder, and played better as a result. Steve handed out compliments all around, even told Tony he was particularly impressed with him. “Nice hustle out there, Stark.” Steve slapped him on the back. 

The Avengers celebrated like a tribe of vikings after a successful raid, and gloatfully exchanged jabs with the Guardians; but they all still went over to the refreshment table together. They were competitive, but the rivalry was playful. They were all friends, in the end. They all crowded around the table that held the massive keg of Gatorade, waiting to pour themselves a celebratory cup as they wiped the dripping sweat from their bodies and chatted about the game. 

As Tony waited at the back of the pack, he felt a presence and glanced over to find Loki standing beside him. The boy had an unopened bottle of blue Gatorade in his hand, which he offered to Tony. “Nice moves out there, hot shot.” He commented. 

Tony grinned and accepted the bottle, finding it cool to the touch. Not having to wait for some watered-down keg Gatorade was nice as he cracked it open. “Thanks. Your brother was a goddamn gladiator out there. I’d be scared to play against him in football. Er, American football.” He took a swig of that cool, sweet, refreshing beverage and felt it wash down his throat. 

“You’ll be watching him win the Superbowl on the telly in a few years, guarantee it.” Loki said. He was watching the team as they got their cups of Gatorade and slapped each other around, getting the drink all over themselves but not quite caring. Tony couldn’t help but notice he had an odd glint in his eyes. Almost... anticipating. 

“Meetup at Rola's in 15?” Steve addressed the crowd around him. 

“Hell yeah!” Peter Quill agreed, pumped despite his team’s loss. “Pizza, bitch!” 

“Language.” Steve said. 

“You joining us for pizza?” Tony asked Loki. 

“Watching a crowd of sweat-drenched teenagers on an adrenaline high shove greasy food in their mouths?” Loki tilted his head and smirked. “Wouldn’t miss it.” 

Tony laughed, “Rola's pizza is the best, though. Some magic ratio in their sauce. You gotta try it, at least.” 

“I’ll have a bite of yours, then.” 

Sharing food? Hell yes. Pinnacle cute. 

“Tony!” Came a delighted little squeal. Tony looked up to see a little 5-year-old running towards him, Bruce walking casually behind. 

Tony squat down to greet Peter. “Hey, buddy. Enjoy the game?” 

“Um, mhm!” Peter confirmed. “Loki and me talked about dinosaurs!” 

Loki laughed, “He remembers more of them than I do. Scientific names and everything.” 

Bruce smiled as he reached them. “He assembled a hard-level pachycephalosaurus skeleton kit from the science museum all by himself when he was 4.” 

“Wow, impressive.” Loki raised his eyebrows, and Peter beamed up at him from the praise. 

“You gonna get pizza with us, bud?” Tony asked the child. 

“Roro’s!” Peter hopped excitedly. Tony didn’t bother correcting him on the name of the pizzeria. The kid’s mispronunciation was too cute, and it wouldn’t last long with how quick he picked things up. Might as well enjoy it while he could. 

“Alright! Let’s go get some pizza.” Tony got to his feet and held out his hand, and Peter took it. Tony nodded at Loki and Bruce and the four of them began walking after the dissolving group as they all started heading in the direction of Rola’s. 

It was as the crowd of teens were making that 10-minute walk to the pizzeria that they started noticing something was wrong. Flatulence wasn’t unusual among sports players, but all of a sudden, everyone started letting ‘em rip in a short time span, several people also belching. It was nonstop, excessive, and some started freaking out wondering what the hell was going on. Natasha was pretending she wasn’t afflicted, but she wasn’t fooling anyone. Others, like Carol, some of the Guardians and little Peter, were cracking up over it. Tony realized only he himself, and anyone who hadn't played soccer today, were not affected by this strange illness in this unholy scene. He blinked, feeling like he was in some kind of weird, smelly Twilight Zone. He wracked his brain trying to think of what could be causing it, when it hit him; the Gatorade. 

Everyone on the team had had the keg Gatorade, but Loki had given Tony his own personal bottle. 

He looked at Loki with a questioning gaze. “Did you know this was going to happen?” If so, he certainly wouldn’t complain about being the one Loki protected from this fate. Excessive gas around your crush was not exactly... ideal. 

Loki looked back at him, face of angelic innocence. “Now, why would you think that?” 

“I... I don’t know.” Tony blinked. What was in that Gatorade? Was it expired? Could expired Gatorade do that? Or could it have been sabotage...? “I think someone put fart powder in the Gatorade.” 

Loki had a look of surprise that didn’t quite reach his eyes. “Who would _ do _such a thing?” With that, the boy walked ahead, and Tony stared at his back in confused wonder the rest of the journey. 

\-- 

As the last few weeks of August went by, odd things happened now and then. Strange occurrences that the neighborhood had never seen the likes of before. Strange things like undecipherable symbols appearing in peoples’ windows only on the morning of the first frost, the Barton family dog suddenly knowing how to open doors and get into peoples’ kitchens for a little snack, and strangest of all, three neighborhood cars supposedly mysteriously switching colors. That last one caused a Mandela effect and a verbal war between everyone who was remembering the original colors of the cars differently. The science enthusiasts of the neighborhood were convinced the street had fallen into an alternate universe. 

All of it was quite odd, and the whole neighborhood was talking about it; especially Mrs. Johnson, who seemed to think evil spirits were behind it, and took liberties to start sprinkling holy water everywhere. But at the moment, it was nothing more than simply odd. Something to chat about. No one was concerned enough to think something fiendish was going on, or to try and get to the bottom of any of it. Tony, personally, waved it all off as ordinary occurrences elevated to ‘strange’ by coincidental timing and a minor form of mass hysteria. The neighborhood was a little different with the Odinsons here now, routines were disrupted, people were looking out their windows more hoping to get a peek at their new neighbors. That’s all any of this was. 

Though everyone knew Hela and Loki were a bit odd, and Odin was a bit cold, the whole neighborhood quickly fell in with the Odinson family. Everyone liked Thor; so strong, so polite, so helpful. Always willing to aid the elderly in bringing their groceries in and volunteering for estate maintenance. All the kids around his age got right along with him, and fought for the right to have him on their team during sports games. But most of all, everyone adored Frigga. Everyone felt so comfortable in her presence, quickly discovered she was a reliable ear and voice for advice, and they knew visiting would mean amazing home-cooked food better than any fancy restaurant. 

When Howard and Maria Stark had returned from their trip, they quickly made a point to throw a welcome party for the Odinsons on their massive estate. Everyone knew it was so Howard could impress his business partner and enhance their professional relationship, but they were more than happy to join in on the celebration. The two powerful men already knew each other via their transactions, and got along quite well. Both a bit cold and closed off, but intelligent and occasionally capable of some extent of good humor. Neither Tony nor Loki had cared to watch them interact, though. It didn’t take long for Tony to realize Loki had similar daddy issues to his own. As did Hela, it seemed. 

Tony and Loki had snuck off up to Tony’s room during the party, smuggling a bottle of champagne, and Loki poured out his family angst over a buzz. Three offspring pining for their father’s attention and pride, but only one of them got it. Loki explained that once Hela had been Odin’s pride and joy, until, 5 years later, Thor was born and became the favored. That was why the two eldest siblings didn’t get along. Hela never got over her jealousy, and Thor didn’t bother trying to get on her good side over it. Too many years of her jealousy-fuelled cruelty as they grew up. Thor couldn’t sympathize with her. 

Thor was still the favored after Loki was born as well. Apparently, Loki had been born a preemie and spent a lot of his early childhood fighting illness. Where Thor was always big and mighty for his age, Loki was small and feeble. Years of trying to step out of his big brother’s large shadow with no avail. Trying to prove he was worth something to Odin, to prove he was Thor’s equal. He wasn’t cruel to Thor out of jealousy like Hela was, though, and so he and Thor got along. He did love his brother. He recognized it was his father’s fault, not Thor’s. Still, he understood Hela’s rage better than anyone. And he knew Hela recognized his struggle. That was part of why the two of them got along best. Aside the similarities in aesthetic and dark interests, of course. 

Tony, of course, had his own daddy issues. His parents were rarely around, always off on some business trip or another. Tony had practically been raised by nannies and tutors his whole life. His mother was loving enough, but his father was closed off and never showed affection. He never complimented Tony on his achievements, and the only time he really spoke to his son was to tell him he didn’t do good enough at something or other. ‘That A could have been an A+ if you spent more time on studying than girls’, for example. The man expected perfection, and the only driving force was negative reinforcement. Be perfect or you’ll hear otherwise. Tony was smart enough to understand he shouldn’t even bother trying to please this unpleasable man, that Howard’s approval or disapproval truly didn’t mean anything; but the habits were so engrained in him from childhood, he really didn’t know how to do anything else. 

After this heart-to-heart especially, Loki and Tony began to get closer over the weeks as they spent more time with each other; whether it was in the workshop, watching neighborhood sports matches, or in town. They really did get on swimmingly, with similar interests and quick tongues. Anyone in proximity became dizzy when they bantered back and forth, especially when the topic was programming or other sciences. Even Bruce seemed a little lost now and then as the pair jumped from topic to topic like a pinball on hyperdrive. They fell into a comfortable friendship, but one dotted with regular tension; a thin, flexible wall that separated what they had from what they could be. They could both feel it stretch from time to time. It was thrilling, that feeling of adrenaline thrumming through the veins, like being on a rollercoaster that constantly threatened to pitch them down the big drop. 

One late night, well past bedtime, Tony looked through his window and saw a dim light emanating from Loki’s window, so he took out his nerf gun and shot a foam dart at the glass. In moments, he saw the boy push back the curtains and peer out. Tony had grinned and waved, so Loki opened the window and they proceeded to (jokingly?) throw flirtatious comments about their PJs back and forth and how _ scandalous _it was to be seeing each other at this time of night. As Tony was reenacting Shakespeare in the role of Romeo, they suddenly heard a voice below them say, “Ah, young love.” 

They both blinked and looked down to see Mrs. Johnson walking her little white dog down the street, smiling up at them. 

“Uh, evening Mrs. Johnson.” Tony felt himself blushing. 

“Have you gotten Stanley’s bladder checked out yet?” Loki asked about the dog, not missing a beat. Known the old lady only a few weeks and already he knew how to handle her better than Tony did. 

“I have, dear. He has a UTI, I’m trying to give him the medication but he knows even when I put it in a treat!” She sighed, looking down at the dog as he lifted a leg to pee, looking uncomfortable. 

“I can stop in and help tomorrow.” Loki offered. “I’m good with dogs.” 

“Oh, that would be lovely, dear.” She said cheerfully as she continued down the road. 

“Night, Mrs. Johnson.” Tony said weakly. 

As the days passed, Tony was making double the progress on JARVIS thanks to Loki’s help. The boy truly had a talent for software design; no doubt having learned in an attempt to impress his father and perhaps be a boon to Asgard one day. He’d even helped Tony figure out the voice naturalness issue; rather than using the set of recordings in the Paul voice package, they figured out how to get the program to analyze the voice tones and pronunciations and emulate it from scratch, applying it to natural speech patterns. It was a huge development, and made speaking to JARVIS feel so much more like speaking to an actual human. 

When the pair wasn’t together, they texted a lot. Sending each other memes, neat videos, and links to scientific papers. It got to the point where even Tony’s mother asked who on earth he was texting so much when he failed to put his phone down even once during dinner one night. Rhodey got pretty annoyed when he was ignoring his friend in favor of texting, leading to Tony sheepishly putting his phone away so he could focus on their game of pool. Bros before... bros? After all. 

One night, when the weather was perfect and the sky was clear, Tony drove Loki outside of the city to go stargazing. They pulled out a pair of reclining lawn chairs, made hot chocolate on a hot plate plugged into the car engine, and lay back to study the constellations. They had fun inventing planets revolving around each far away star; imagining what kind of atmosphere they had down to the specific composition and designed potential life forms that could thrive there. Loki’s knowledge of biology was deep, and one of his pet musings was to create plausible theories on how life could form differently in alien environments or made up of different base elements from carbon and water. They went so far as to name these theoretical creatures, and the scientific names became more and more ridiculous as the night went on, laughter ensuing. 

Tony had really never experienced anything like this. He had lots of friends, and been through many relationships of varying lengths and levels of commitment, but Loki was a whole other animal. He was actually... _ important _to him. Tony had never been so interested in another human to the point of addiction in his life, and he really didn’t want to mess this up, or misinterpret anything. Was Loki, like Tony, simply flirty with everyone? He questioned this every time something happened. Any time Loki made an off comment, looked at him with an odd gaze, or made near-intimate physical contact. 

One such time was when Tony took him to the arcade at the far side of town near the college. 

Loki was, as could be expected, having the time of his life. He said it had been ages since he last visited an arcade, but Tony was struggling to believe that. The boy played every single game he touched like a master cellist, black nail polish a blur as he worked those buttons and dials. High scores everywhere. ‘LOKI’ was the new top of all the charts. A crowd started following him around, cheering him on. Older gamers and newer. Someone started singing Pinball Wizard when Loki was smoking Attack From Mars, and many joined in. A few kids Tony recognized from school were wondering where the mysterious English boy had come from. It made his eye twitch a little when one of them started mentioning how pretty he was, that he’d ‘tap that’. The kid went so far as to push to the front and start flirting with him, making lewd game-related comments, like ‘you sure gobbled up those balls’ when he was playing Pac-Man. To his satisfaction though, Loki didn't seem interested, and thwarted the simpleton with the sharp silver tongue Tony had come to adore. 

As thoroughly impressed as he was, by late afternoon, Tony was starting to get tired of being slaughtered in all the multiplayer games they tried out. Even Dance Dance Revolution, which Tony had previously considered himself quite good at, was executed flawlessly by the raven-haired boy. Which was surprising, considering he’d never struck him as athletic. Thankfully, Loki seemed about done with the place as well, and suggested they go to the ice cream place again. 

As they were heading out of the arcade, that’s when Loki spotted the photo booth. 

“Want to snap a souvenir?” Loki asked, gesturing to it. 

“You know we can just take SnapChat pictures for free, right?” Tony said, amused. He loved the idea, but couldn’t help taking a jab at the overpriced gimmick machines. 

“Yeah, yeah. So you’re in?” Loki grinned, and without waiting for a response, he grabbed Tony by the arm and started towards the booth. Tony blinked, couldn’t help but hyperfocus on the boy’s arm wrapped around his, and allowed himself to be pulled along, feeling like jelly. 

Loki peeked into the booth and commented, “Oh, this is a squishy one.” He pulled his head back out and pulled the curtain back. “Ladies first.” He offered. Tony smirked and courtesied like a proper lady with an invisible skirt, dipping his head to get into the booth and sitting down on the little stool. 

He didn’t really think about what this one tiny stool and small space meant before he suddenly found himself with an entire Loki in his lap. He was too stunned to move as he felt the boy’s weight on him, face full of wavy raven hair, nose filled with his scent as Loki casually leaned forward to hit the digital buttons on the screen in front of him. 

“Cats or stupid emojis?” Loki was asking regarding the photo frame, though Tony’s brain barely registered. If he was hyperfocused on his arm before, he had a _ lot _more to hyperfocus on now. “Why am I even entertaining the alternative, cats obviously.” 

“O-obviously.” Tony repeated weakly, staring at that lovely pale neck in front of his nose. 

“Ready?” Loki glanced back at him. 

“...for?” 

“The picture?” He raised an eyebrow. 

“Oh, yes, ready!” Tony said a tad too loudly, fighting a blush. 

Tony worked very hard to focus on the picture-taking in front of him instead of the fact that he had an absolutely gorgeous boy in his lap that he’d had a major crush on for the last few weeks and the fact that he smelled like honey and lavender and his skin was so pale and smooth and it would be so easy just to wrap his arms around him right now and kiss him- he cleared his mind as fast as possible. It would be a _ very _awkward position to find himself in right now if he let his thoughts get away from him. 

When it was over, and Loki was pulling himself out of Tony’s lap to exit the booth, Tony sighed both in relief and disappointment over the loss. He sat there recovering for a moment before getting up to join him outside. 

Loki was holding the printed pictures and grinning. He handed Tony his copy, and Tony looked it over, a smile forming on his face. He hadn’t really paid attention to what he was doing in the moment, but the pictures had turned out adorable. The first was just regular smiles, but they started pulling faces in the second, and by the fourth they had the most ridiculous expressions. That was a keeper for sure. If he was a scrapbooker, that would go on page one. 

As they finally left the arcade, Tony spent the walk to the diner wondering if Loki had any idea at all what he had just done to him. 

Unbeknownst to him, Loki had known exactly what he was doing, and enjoyed every second of it like the little shit he was. 

— 

“Good morning, dear.” 

“Morning mom.” Tony greeted his mother, who was frying up some eggs, as he walked off the last step of the staircase. He didn’t bother greeting his father, who sat at the table typing something into his laptop. He’d just grunt in response, if he acknowledged him at all. 

“Soccer match today?” Maria asked; conversationally, since the answer was obvious, considering Tony was in full soccer gear. 

“Yup, last one before school starts.” Tony confirmed, stopping at the counter to pick up a piece of browned toast with a fried egg on it and taking a bite out of it, the soft golden yolk spilling out and running down the bread. Tony was actually kind of looking forward to school starting in two days. He and Loki had already agreed to sit together at lunch. He couldn’t wait to hear tales on how the boy made a fool of his teachers. 

“Well, be careful.” His mother told him as she flipped an egg. “Wouldn’t want you to start school on a broken leg!” 

“I will, mom.” He shoveled the last of the toast in his mouth. He was late enough as it was, having struggled to find his soccer shoes. “Thanks for breakfast, see you at dinner.” 

“Not joining us for lunch today?” 

“Celebratory pizza with the team.” 

“Gotchya. Alright, see you tonight then.” 

With that, Tony kissed his mother on the cheek and headed out. 

Maybe he was getting used to all the weird things happening lately, maybe he was just focused on getting next door to collect Thor and Loki, but it took him until he reached the end of his driveway to notice the small crowd of people outside. 

He felt his heart hitch when he realized where they were. Was it Mrs. Johnson? Was she alright? Had something terrible just happened? He jogged over and asked what was going on. 

One of the elderly neighbors had a perplexed look on his face. “Have you seen the mailboxes?” 

Tony blinked, and then looked around. He soon saw what everyone was concerned about. Every single mailbox on the street was covered in a thick coating of what looked like cobwebs, up the post and wrapped around the body. It obscured even the creepy cherub on Mrs. Johnson’s mailbox. Strangest of all though, it afflicted every mailbox but the Odinsons’. 

“What the hell...?” Tony wondered under his breath. 

“...I’m telling you, it’s that _ family _!” He heard Mrs. Johnson’s voice, hushed and flustered, and he turned to listen in. “Strange things have been happening ever since they got here!” 

A few people nodded, one saying “Now that you mention it...” 

Tony felt himself pale. He needed to stop this quick. Nothing was more dangerous than paranoia spurred on by misinterpretation and false correlation. “I’m sure there’s a reasonable explanation.” Tony spoke up, and everyone turned to look at him. “It looks like some sort of caterpillar nest, probably. It’s not that unusual for this climate.” 

“Then why didn’t they go for the Odinsons’ mailbox?” A middle-aged woman asked. The street’s personal MLM-peddling ‘Karen’. “Seems suspicious to me.” 

Tony thought hard. “They got a brand new mailbox when they got here. It’s probably still coated in chemicals from the factory. I’m sure it doesn’t smell good to the caterpillars.” He was pulling this out of his ass, he had no more clue what the hell this was about than any of these other people did. But no one here was capable of fact checking him on that. 

To his relief, most everyone’s concerned faces softened and a few said that that sounded reasonable. Everyone knew Tony was smart. They trusted him to have a scientific explanation. He glanced over at Mrs. Johnson, though; she didn’t look convinced. She clutched her cross necklace between her fingers. “Something isn’t right about those children.” She muttered quietly, no doubt referring to Loki and Hela. But she turned and headed back towards her house regardless. Tony didn’t like it. If anyone was capable of being a problem, it was Mrs. Johnson. Loki didn’t need that. 

He made a mental note to dissect one of the mailboxes and take samples if the mess was still there later, see if he couldn’t find out what type of caterpillar was the culprit. But he didn’t have time to do anything about it now. So strange crisis averted, Tony headed back towards the Odinson house. The association could take care of the mailboxes, he had a soccer match to get to. 

Tony walked past the Odinson mailbox, glancing at it curiously as he went, but failing to notice anything odd. So he put it out of his mind as he strode up the porch steps and over to the door. He tried the handle, and found it unlocked, so he let himself in. At this point, a lot of the neighborhood kids came in and out so often that the Odinsons just left the door unlocked during the summer day, so long as someone was home. They’d be locking it again once the school season starts no doubt, but at the moment Tony appreciated not having to rouse Odin from his study to open the door for him. That was uncomfortable enough to nearly dissuade him from coming over. 

The house seemed empty; the car was gone, so Frigga and Hela were probably out shopping. Odin was either locked in his study or off attending business at Asgard HQ. He could hear a gentle whirring, and peered around the doorway corner to see the Roomba vacuum doing a sweep of the living room carpet. 

“Hey, DJ Roomba.” Tony greeted the unintelligent robot that wouldn’t recognize his greeting. He considered rectifying that. Have it at least beep in response to being spoken to. 

Then, he heard footsteps quietly padding in from the kitchen, and looked up to see Loki with a travel mug of some hot liquid. “You're late.” The boy noted before he took a sip of what was probably tea. It took Tony a long moment to process the sight in front of him before he could think of a response. 

Loki was wearing a dark green t-shirt that showed just a good amount of his flat belly and hip bones, and underneath it was a mesh top that stopped at his elbows, creamy skin contrasting between the lines. His black pants were fitted, and he had black ankle boots on with just a little heel to them. His hair swooped perfectly, and he looked like he was wearing the slightest hint of eyeliner, making his green eyes pop more than ever. To top it all off, he was wearing a black collar around his neck, bringing attention to that beautiful expanse of skin. 

Good god, was he _ trying _to ruin Tony? 

“I- ah, couldn’t uh... find my cleats.” Tony stammered lamely, any semblance of a clever response gone from his fuzz-filled brain at the moment. 

“Were they in the workshop?” Loki asked, amused expression on his pretty little face. 

“...how’d you know?” 

“You threw them off there when you were excited to show me a new development on JARVIS.” Loki explained, leaning back against the living room wall casually as he sipped his drink. “Shoulda asked me, I suppose.” 

“Retrospect.” Tony cleared his throat, putting his hands in his pockets. “You, ah... look nice...” 

Loki looked down at himself. “What, this old thing? Bargain trash, really.” 

“Well you... wear it. Good.” Tony swallowed. 

“Thanks.” Loki said with a smile. “Hey, are you any good with knots?” 

“What kind of knots?” 

Loki held up his arm. He was wearing a black leather wrist band tied by a thin black string on his previously-sprained wrist, which had been healed for over a week now. “Its a bit too snug, but I tied the knot too tight, I can’t undo it one-handed.” 

Tony blinked. He really hoped he could handle being in close proximity with Loki right now. “I can do a whole lot of fine things with these fingers.” He couldn’t help but say, starting to walk over. 

Loki smirked. “Maybe you can show me sometime.” 

Oh god, what has he done. Tony felt a cold sweat forming as he walked forward. 

Suddenly, as he was taking a step, the Roomba appeared out of nowhere, and Tony tripped over it. Before he knew what was happening, he was falling forward, and his hands hit the wall. He blinked, and soon realized he was staring into a pair of round green eyes, blinking at him with surprise. He’d fallen straight into Loki, accidentally pinning him against the wall. 

Normally, Tony would probably pull away immediately and apologize profusely in a situation like this, but something about that look of Loki’s made him hesitate. Made him stay frozen in that position and stare into those beautiful eyes for what felt like an eternity. Something about his gaze was saying, ‘do something with this, I dare you’. He felt a rush of adrenaline course through his body. Everything was screaming at him. All those weeks of pent up desire, that sexy outfit Loki had on today, that _ gaze _ he was giving him... all of it was saying _ just go for it already! _

And then something snapped inside of him. He said ‘fuck it’ to himself, and he went for it. He dove in, closed that miniscule gap between their faces and kissed those soft, beautiful lips. He felt the breath rush out from Loki’s nose and, to his joy, the boy kissed him back. Loki pulled him closer by the shirt and they were kissing like starving animals, attacking each other’s faces with the ravenous hunger they’d both held inside of them for this long. Tony deepened the kiss as he pressed Loki back against the wall. He tasted like nothing because you don’t actually taste anything when you’re kissing, unless you’re Frenching in which case it tastes like wet skin and sometimes chapstick. But god did he _ smell _amazing. That honey and lavender and a hint of sweet tea enveloping him. He could drink it in forever. 

But it was suddenly cut short when Tony heard loud footsteps stomping down the stairs and he ripped away as fast as humanly possible, staggering backwards. Thor bounded down the hall in his soccer clothes, reaching the front door, before glancing their way into the living room. “Stark! We are going to be late! You know Rogers hates tardiness.” 

Tony’s voice was nearly gone as he croaked breathlessly, “Ah, um, yeah! Be right there!” He hadn’t taken his eyes off Loki where he still stood back against the wall, lips and cheeks red, green eyes wide as he stared back in a daze. 

Thor tilted his head, wondering to himself why they were acting strangely. But then, those two were always strange, so he shrugged and opened the front door, stepping outside. Tony breathed out in relief. “We, ah... shouldn’t keep him waiting.” 

Loki gazed at him for a long moment before nodding, peeling himself from the wall and starting off across the living room. Tony swallowed and watched the boy pass him by, feeling a sudden deep loss by the fact that the moment he had been waiting for had been cut short. That kiss had felt so wonderful. Everything he had dreamed and more. He just wanted to keep doing it. Kiss Loki senseless and keep kissing. 

So, without thinking, he grabbed the boy’s arm and spun him around, pulling him in for a second kiss. Loki was surprised at first, blushing fiercely, but melted into it in moments. Tony wrapped his arms around his slim midsection, feeling the mesh undershirt against his skin, and they kissed gentle and slow and sweet this time. Both of their eyes fluttered open as they slowly pulled apart, gazing at each other searchingly. 

“I’ve been wanting to do that for so long.” Tony breathed, still holding him. 

“Me too.” Loki responded softly. 

“Damn, so we coulda been doing this the whole time?” 

A faint smirk played across Loki’s lips. “Ah, well. We’ll just have to make up for lost time later.” 

More beautiful and promising words had never been said, and Tony grinned and gave him one last peck before letting him go and stepping back. “Come on, let’s go before Steve has an aneurism.” 

As Loki followed Tony out the door, he heard a little beep and glanced down at the Roomba, almost acting like it was looking up at him expectantly. Loki reached down and pat it. “Good work, little one.” He praised it quietly when Tony was out of earshot. “I’m not sure he ever would have gone for it without you.” 

DJ Roomba beeped happily. 

Tony spent that soccer match in a dream as a result of finally breaking that last barrier with Loki. He felt elated and high, and absolutely untouchable. He felt like he was in godmode as he played, taking the lead in shots on goal. Everyone was ecstatic and cheered him on as they ran around him, and most passed to him when the opportunity arose. This was the final game of the season, and the Avengers and Guardians were tied; everything hinged on this. Everyone was pumped and hungry for the win. 

But Tony had that edge. That high thrumming through his veins, and no one could keep up with him. It was almost an unfair advantage as he took that field by storm. It was just the perfect ending to the season when, near the end, Tony scored the tiebreaking goal. The ball launching from where it had connected with his cleat like a rocket, shooting clean past the goalie's shoulder. His team erupted into ecstatic cheering, and Tony yelled in triumph before running over to the side of the field, not missing a beat. 

He ran over to Loki and practically tackled the surprised boy, capturing his lips in a celebratory kiss. Excitement beating faster as their mouths connected. Several people around them cheered and slapped Tony on the back, and he pulled away from the kiss with a grin, arms still wrapped around the boy. 

Loki shook his head with an endeared smirk, hands resting on Tony’s chest. “You’re getting sweat all over me, but congratulations.” 

Tony laughed and released him. “Sorry.” He wasn’t, though. He couldn’t remember the last time he felt this good. 

Natasha jogged over, amused smirk on her face. “I’m not _ remotely _surprised by this development.” She said, referring to the PDA. 

“I’m slightly surprised and I have no idea why.” Bruce said. “I should have seen this coming.” 

“That kick was incredible!” Steve came up, breathing hard. “I didn’t know you had it in you, Stark!” Such praise from that boy was a high honor, but boy did Tony deserve it. 

The rest of the team followed, all loudly celebrating the win, cheering for Tony, even lifting him up on their shoulders for a lap. It was hot and sticky and packed in with all these, loud sweaty people clustered around him like a tin of sardines, getting shoved around in the boisterous cheering, but he didn’t care. He was having the time of his life. Even the usually-reserved Loki had a grin plastered on his face. Thor slapped Tony on the back in congratulations on such a fantastic game, and also for managing to woo his brother, saying Tony was certainly a worthy companion for him. Tony was pleased he approved. He’d make a great brother-in-law, if it came to that someday. Tony was in enough of a joy and adrenaline high that he was thinking about that sort of thing. 

The entire group celebrated at Rola’s pizzeria, eating until they got sick, because it was the last time of the season they would get to experience all of this together. Forever, for some of them, considering many would be graduating at the end of the year. So everyone made the most of it, and the restaurant was a loud and boisterous ruckus until the end of the day. When he wasn’t being congratulated or admired for his skill in the game, Tony was foregoing the pizza in favor of making out with Loki in one of the booths, since they could do that now. “If you’d pause on the snogging for _ two seconds... _” Thor eventually said in amusement, when he was trying to drag Tony away to explain how he had managed a certain move. 

All in all? Best fucking day of Tony’s life. And damn was he excited for more days like it. 

Loki lay in bed that night, staring up at the ceiling, reminiscing on the events of the day. He could still feel the tingle of Tony’s lips on his own, and he smirked. Everything went better than he hoped, and that command he had programmed into the Roomba had done its job perfectly. Of course, that part he knew he could rely on. He’d tested it on Thor, tripping the unobservant boy as he tried to run into the kitchen. Nearly smashed his nose, but hey. It wasn’t like he didn’t smash his nose plenty on his own. Thor could use more hard lessons in watching where he was going. 

Not to mention the fact that he had designed the program based on things he had learned from JARVIS’s coding, so the little robot was perfectly capable of analyzing its’ surroundings and determining the perfect time to scoot out under an unsuspecting victim’s foot. _ Could _he have just been the one to go for the kiss first? Sure. But where was the fun in a direct solution when you can come up with an overly elaborate workaround scheme instead? 

Loki glanced over at his clock. 11:58 PM, the glowing green letters read. He heaved himself up into a sitting position, swung his legs off the bed and pushed himself to his feet. He was in his PJs; just an oversized green t-shirt and boxer briefs; and the brand new dark gray carpet was soft under his feet as he padded over to the window. He flipped the locks and pushed open the window before resting his elbows against the sill, leaning over to gaze out into the night. It was fairly light out, as the full moon rose above the trees. Kooky old Mr. Smith was outside watering his garden, which he liked to do late at night for some reason, and another neighbor was chatting with a visiting friend who was preparing to go home. 

_ Perfect _, Loki thought, a slightly malicious smirk crossing his face. He glanced over at the clock again. 11:59 PM, and about to turn midnight. He breathed in the night air and turned his gaze to the sky. Any moment now. 

A strange, high pitched cacophony slowly began to get louder, filling the air. The sky darkened all of a sudden, as though the moon was passing behind a thick cloud. He could see Mr. Smith and the other two blink up at the sky quizzically. 

And that was when the screaming started. 

The sky was filled with hundreds of screeching bats, their wings audible in such multitudes as they careened as one, dipping down towards the street like a great black cloud before spiraling back up. Those who were outside threw themselves to the ground in terror. Windows were opened and lights were turned on to see what all the ruckus was. People ran outside in response and immediately regretted it, adding to the screaming. It was sheer chaos down there on the street as the whole neighborhood was filled with the deafening sounds of countless bats crying out like a flock of bashees. They filled the street and burst up, moving like a school of fish, curling through the air in strange patterns. 

Loki smirked as he gazed down at the mayhem below. And through the flood of black wings, he spotted Mrs. Johnson staring up at him in horror. 

\-- 

Loki stifled a laugh when he realized his little fantasy from a few weeks ago was actually coming true. Here he was, in a relationship with _ Tony Stark _, sitting in a fancy sports car, riding up to his first day at the new high school. 

“What are you smiling about?” Tony asked, glancing over from the driver’s seat for a moment before looking back at the road. 

“Mm? Oh, nothing.” 

“Are you looking forward to school?” 

“Oh yes, I do love observing the fascinatingly diverse range of behaviors in teenagers when faced with forced social interaction.” 

Tony laughed, “Maybe we can start a study book on our observations.” 

He drove up to a spot in the parking lot, where a lot of teenagers were spilling out of to head into the school, parked the car and turned the key to shut off the engine. Loki gazed out the window and felt himself falter a little. Today was something he could handle, but he knew it would take a lot of mental energy. New situations, new people... they always did. He felt exhausted just thinking about how tired he would be by the end of the day. “Want to just... stay in here and make out all day?” He suggested, really only half joking. 

“I mean, hell yeah, but maybe not on the very first day of school.” Tony responded with a smirk. 

The expected response. Loki took a breath and opened the car door, stepping out. Tony quickly followed, pushing his sunglasses up onto his head, grabbing his little tablet pack from the backseat and swinging it over his shoulder as he got out. He rounded the car to join Loki and they walked together towards the school. It was a bit nippy today, so Tony wore a light, stylish jacket over his dark blue button-up, which went nicely with his fitted dark pants and nice brown shoes. Loki was wearing a long, black open sweater that reached down to his knees and flowed out a little, giving him an intimidating silhouette. Combined with his dark green shirt under the black vest, black skinnies and black ankle boots, and his dark gray messenger bag, his look was a mixture of adorable and terrifying. Just the way he liked it. 

“Nat’s in your grade,” Tony thought to mention as they walked side-by-side. “Maybe you’ll have some classes with her?” 

“Yes, we compared schedules the other day, we have several together.” 

“Good, you’ll have a friend to shit talk about everyone around you with.” 

Loki grinned. “You know me so well.” 

The pair followed the scattered crowd in as they filed into the school, spilling into the main halls to find their friends or classrooms. The halls would be at their most chaotic today, as many kids would likely struggle to find their new classes. There was always a tardiness grace period on the first day to make up for that. As Tony and Loki walked, many of the teens glanced their way, some muttering excitedly to each other about this mysterious new kid with the brightest green eyes they’d ever seen. Tony was used to the treatment, but today Loki was receiving the brunt of it. He saw a lot of goo-goo eyes and checking-out side-glances that he’d had enough experience with to recognize a mile away. A couple of students who already knew Loki from the neighborhood greeted the pair, and when the boy said hello back, Tony heard a cluster of girls nearby squeal about his accent, and saw a dude staring. 

When they reached the circular hallway connector, the boys spotted Thor surrounded by and speaking to a crowd of students eager to learn more about the handsome foreigner. When the blonde spotted them, he waved and called, “Brother! I missed you this morning!” 

“Yes well, you _ are _more of a morning person than I.” Loki responded with a sigh as he strode over to his brother, the crowd around him parting to make room. 

Tony overheard a pair of girls giggling to each other, “_ Two _hot British guys? This is so our year!” Heh, sorry ladies, one of them is taken. 

For Loki, this was an alien experience. It wasn’t that no one ever found him attractive before in the UK per se, he’d had his share of boyfriends and people stared at his eyes a lot, but he’d known that school group since first grade. He was an infamous prankster, and many people mistook his intelligence and general displeasure towards socializing as pettiness. But here? Fresh start. No one knew who he was. He was nothing more than a pretty new face and an exotic accent. He could be anything here. 

He didn’t want to be Mr. Popular. He was vain, but that was far too much attention for his liking. But a little admiration and maybe some jealousy sounded nice. So when he was scolding Thor for eating all of the bacon that morning and Tony came up to put an arm around him and kissed him on the cheek, and the whispers and envious glances began? That suited him fine. Being known as the mysterious foreigner in a relationship with the most popular and admired guy in school? Loki was kind of a diva, so that was perfect. 

The pair pulled themselves away from the group, leaving Thor to go back to his conversations. Tony still had his arm around Loki’s shoulders as they strolled down the hallway, and he asked, “What’s your first class today?” 

“Chemistry. Can’t wait to argue with the teacher over the pronunciation of aluminium.” 

“I like to think anything said in your English is more proper.” 

“Sure, but if Americans generally cared about proper, they’d have universally adopted the metric system by now.” 

“Oh, right. You’re gonna have fun anytime measurements are involved.” 

“I always have fun anytime measurements are involved.” Loki winked, making Tony choke. “I taught myself standard over the summer anyway, I’ll be fine. I fear more for Thor.” 

“Ah well, he just needs to survive this year and then he’ll be launching into college football, right?” 

“And if all goes well, the NFL in a few years.” Loki glanced over when he spotted an unmistakable head of fiery red hair striding down the hallway. Natasha headed their way, pushing her hair out of her face. 

“Ready to blow some shit up in Chem?” She asked. 

“Always.” 

“Oh boy, do you two have a plan to get suspended on the very first day?” Tony sighed, letting his arm drop from around Loki’s shoulders. 

“Listen Stark, if we actually managed to figure out how to turn orientation papers and various basic school supplies into explosives, our creativity and ingenuity should be _ encouraged _.” Nat grinned. She held her arm out like a proper gentleman for Loki. “May I walk you to your classroom?” 

Loki took her arm, “Oh of course, dahling.” He said in a hammed-up Audrey Hepburn impression. He blew a kiss to Tony and asked, “See you at lunch, dahling?” 

Tony grinned and dipped his head in a mock bow, “Looking forward to it, darlin’.” 

And with that Loki and Nat pranced away down the hallway. Loki was looking forward to the school days ahead with her. They’d hit it off quickly, having the same sort of dark humor; and ever since he stopped in to help her through a challenging game boss, they had been hanging out whenever he wasn’t with Tony or busy with personal projects. Painting each other’s nails black, discussing people they hated, watching horror movies; where Tony appealed to his academic and explorative nature, Nat was all there for his macabre and spiteful side. She was absolutely best friend material, and Loki had a feeling that the pair of them had a lot of mischief to look forward to in the future. 

His mind was running with the possibilities of having her as an accomplice already. 

By the time lunch came around, Loki was starting to get used to the staring. Felt the inquisitive eyes on the back of his neck at all times, caught glances that immediately turned away all the time. It wouldn’t last forever, he knew. Once everyone got used to seeing his face, they would have better things to put their attention to. Schoolwork, romances, college applications. The like. With Thor, though... that boy was far more charismatic and likeable, actually had an interest in the other humans. The attention would never leave him, but that’s how he liked it. Loki, more of an introvert, couldn’t fathom living that way. Having that much energy for that many people and still having the energy to do _ manual labor _ afterwards. Truly mindboggling. 

Kind of caught Loki in a trap of conflicting emotions, too. On one hand, he was glad Thor dragged the attention away from him so he wouldn’t have to expend energy on socializing. But on the other hand, he hated feeling like he was stuck in a shadow. He wished he was the kind of person Thor was. Likeable, energetic. Had daddy’s approval. But he wasn’t Thor. He was Loki. And he’d learned early on how to be happy with that. Because when he wasn’t stuck looking like the yin to Thor’s yang, he loved being himself. And he was doing his best to quell those jealous tendencies and love being himself in Thor’s shadow too. As much as he loved Hela, he didn’t want to end up like her. Eternally spiteful, trapped by a need for approval that she was never going to receive, letting the rage twist inside her. Who knew what it would make her into one day. 

Loki and Natasha entered the lunchroom and quickly found the table with their friends. Easy to spot, considering they took up the entire length of the table with their numbers. Thor spotted them and waved enthusiastically from where he sat beside Tony, whose expression immediately warmed when Loki sat down across from him. 

“There you are. How have classes been so far?” Tony leaned over the table, clasping his hands in interest. 

“Well, the chemistry teacher was putting everyone in groups of 3 to 4 for the year’s lab teams,” Natasha began as she was taking her lunch out of her bag, “so Loki and I said fuck that-” 

“Language.” Steve warned. 

“-we said we’re perfectly capable of science-ing with just the two of us thank you-” 

“We’re Team Assassins.” Loki cut in. 

“Of course.” Tony smirked. 

“-and considering Loki is a little genius, we’re absolutely going to blow all those other teams out of the water.” Natasha finished. 

“They’re going to be saying, ‘y’know what, let’s just send these two right to Uni’ and we won’t have to take another year of PE.” Loki said. 

“Not that _ I _ mind physical exertion,” Natasha clarified, “but I prefer sparring over trying to coordinate with a team consisting of unnecessarily aggressive, over-competitive hormonal dudes and chicks that spend the entire basketball game sacrificing performance for the sake of looking 'attractive’ for the boys... and I put that in quotations because these girls’ idea of an attractive stance appears strikingly close to ‘duck impressionist’.” 

“I love this woman.” Loki sighed, admiring smile on his face. 

Natasha smirked and pinched his cheek. Tony chuckled and began unwrapping his burger. Just a simple Burger King meal; it was a little tradition he had set for himself. Treat himself to a little junk food at his favorite fast food restaurant on the first day of school. When he glanced back up at Loki, he did a double take; as all of a sudden, the boy had a travel mug, a wrap, an oval container, and a very large tupperware that he was opening to reveal a big batch of taquitos. Things he absolutely was not carrying when he came in here. 

“My mother sent me with these to share.” Loki placed the tupperware on the table and slid it into the center, immediately grabbing everyone’s attention. All in the neighborhood knew by now about Frigga’s food, and to hear that she had sent her son with homemade taquitos to share was an instant day improvement. He placed down the opened oval container to reveal what looked like a fresh, handmade dipping sauce. Her sauce concoctions were raved about most of all. “To celebrate the first day of school.” 

“Oh my god, _ yes _ .” Rhodey rubbed his hands together eagerly, being the first to reach out and take some of the snack. “ _ God, _I love your mom.” Everyone else immediately also dug in. The chicken taquitos were loaded and miraculously still crispy, and the sauce was mouth-watering. They all told Thor and Loki to pass on their compliments to the chef. 

“How the hell did you fit all of that in your little bag?” Tony asked with wonder. 

“Oh, you know. Magic. Pocket universes.” Loki said casually as he peeled the paper back from his wrap. The boy did like to be mysterious. 

It was a funny thing, really. Always so intelligent and logical, and then he’d suddenly mention something about ghosts or other non-scientific things as casually as if he was simply talking about the weather. Tony hadn’t quite figured out if it was just dry humor, or if he really did believe in these things. He wasn’t going to judge if it were the latter, after all, magic and legends were sometimes phenomena that science had yet to explore; but it was just an intriguing characteristic he’d yet to understand. It kept him guessing, kept him from entirely figuring the boy out. 

As they ate their lunches and the conversations around him descended into less than interesting topics, Tony’s mind wandered and he began overhearing a conversation between some kids from his neighborhood at the table behind him. 

“...half the neighborhood looked in the mirror and found them like that.” 

“Red teeth?!” 

“Yeah! It was so gross and creepy. My aunt looked like a betel nut addict.” 

“Something in the water supply maybe?” 

“They were treating it for that weird garlic thing, but that was weeks ago...” 

“Plus like, why only half the neighborhood?” 

“I mean, some people don’t drink water in the morning... or they have bottled water.” 

“I don’t know, man. Weird things keep happening lately. My mom says ever since that... that family moved in...” 

By this point, the kids had lowered their voices and Tony could no longer hear them. But he’d gotten the gist. Something had turned peoples’ teeth red this morning? This was the first time he was hearing about it. Were they really having more wacky issues with the water today? Or was it something else? Tony found himself mystified. And yet again, people were insinuating it had something to do with the Odinsons. Something he heard Mrs. Johnson insisting and spreading right after the insane bat incident the other night. He hadn’t been able to stop her that time. The suspicion was setting in. 

He had to get to the bottom of this, before paranoia took hold of the neighborhood and the Odinsons faced Twilight Zone-worthy insanity. 

Tony heard more talk of these mysterious red teeth off and on throughout the day, and he tried to come up with an explanation for it when he wasn’t focusing on school. It was on his mind as he and Loki were getting into his car after school, and he mentioned it to the boy as he was starting up the vehicle. “Apparently it happened to several families in a radius around our area.” He concluded. 

“How terribly odd.” Loki said as he gazed disinterestedly at the Discord chat on his phone. He didn’t sound the slightest bit concerned or surprised by the information. Perhaps he had simply heard about it from someone else, but... then, he never did seem concerned or surprised when strange things happened around the neighborhood. On several occasions, he’d even looked amused. Now, Tony didn’t want to give in to the fearmongering that Mrs. Johnson was spouting, and he just told himself the boy was generally unexpressive and disinterested in the humans around him, but... 

If he was being honest with himself, he wasn’t _ entirely _certain of Loki’s innocence anymore. 

\-- 

As the days became two weeks, stranger and stranger things occurred in the neighborhood. Increasingly odd Somethings that heightened in unsettling nature. Everyone on the street was on edge waiting to find out what form the next thing would take, and the students who lived there came into school frazzled and talking to their friends about the events nervously. One morning, everyone reported hearing strange noises like whispers in an unknown language (perhaps Latin, someone suggested) during the dark of night. No one could sleep, laying paralyzed in fright in their beds. Tony tried to chalk it up to auditory pareidolia or musical ear syndrome via the white noise of the street lamps buzzing or the sounds of nature perhaps, but this many people experiencing it at once was a hard one to explain. Infrasound? That was a scientific explanation to a good many paranormal experiences. There wasn’t any construction going on in the neighborhood at midnight, but a number of things emitted infrasound. Earthquakes, for example. 

Another night, strange red lights emanated from several peoples’ attic windows, which could be seen by their neighbors. But when the owners of the houses were alerted and had gone upstairs to investigate, the red lights were mysteriously gone. The attics dark. No sign of where the light had emanated. If they hadn’t seen the creepy phenomenon in their own neighbors' windows, they might have assumed it was everyone else who was crazy. 

The thing that really got everyone talking, though, was what occurred when the autumn leaves began falling. The colorful fall trees began to lose some of their foliage early, normal enough. But one morning, although no one had seen anything outside that had aroused suspicion during the night, they all awoke to find leaves arranged tip-to-tip in strange patterns in a perfect line down the road. Eerie, complex symbols tediously arranged by an eye for detail... in the shapes of pentagrams and other seemingly demonic symbols. That was when people truly starting believing something paranormal was happening around here. When people really started freaking out. When Mrs. Johnson began spreading salt around her home and crying about what they had done for Jesus to turn his back on them and allow them to face the wrath of Satan. 

By this point, the Odinsons had to know that they were suspect in this. The neighbors gazed fearfully at Hela as she walked out to catch a bus to work in the morning or drove off with her father, at Loki as he wandered over to Tony’s place for the ride to school. Tony saw their wary looks behind Loki’s back, heard their whispering. Overheard students mentioning how they had seen Loki drawing strange, demonic sigils in class, making note of his dark attire and mysterious personality. He and his sister _ must _be worshippers of Satan, they were all convinced. And not the wholesome Twitter Satan. The scary one. These things wore at them. It chipped away at their neighborly demeanor. They started wishing those two Odinson offspring would just go away. The whole family, if need be, as much as they all loved Thor and Frigga. 

And then, one morning it came to a head. 

Tony was a bit tired that morning. He’d lost sleep working on some core new features for JARVIS, some of which had been Loki’s idea. He smiled in the mirror, through his tired eyes, as he thought about how much he enjoyed working on JARVIS with his boyfriend. How many people got to enjoy something like that? Designing the most advanced AI ever attempted with someone you also got to make out with in the workshop? Going from writing code to suddenly having a lap full of cute partner kissing you all over your face? Tony felt very lucky. As he pulled today’s outfit on and grabbed his tablet bag, he thought about how much he was looking forward to seeing Loki today. 

As he started outside, however, he was met with a shrieking sound. Startled, despite coming to expect strange things as of late, he rushed out across his porch to see what was going on. To his horror, he was met with the sight of hundreds of frog carcasses littering the neighborhood for as far as he could see. Several neighbors were outside staring at them in disgust as well. Bloated, slimy frogs motionless all over the pavement everywhere... except, of course, for within a circle around the Odinson house. 

The shrieking was coming from Mrs. Johnson. She was outside the Odinson house, holding up a large cross and spouting out what sounded like quotes from the Bible. Exorcisms, perhaps. Several people were looking over at her, some from their windows, wondering what all the commotion was about. 

Finally, Frigga came from the door and walked over to the elderly woman, hands up and voice calming, “Are you alright, Mrs. Johnson?” 

“Those _ children _of yours!” Mrs. Johnson pointed and spat rabidly. “They’re summoning demons! Devil-worshippers! The pair of them!” 

“Now, dear, I’m sure there’s a simple explanation.” Frigga said soothingly. “Mass frog migration, perhaps?” 

“There have been omens!” The old woman shrieked. “Satan himself is here! And those little _ pagans _ called him! Maybe... or maybe _ they _are the demons, little demon spawn in human skin!” 

Tony stood there biting his thumb nail as he watched the woman have a meltdown, watched as Frigga did her best to calm her. The kindly woman took the elderly’s hands as she became a blubbering mess, and began to walk her across the street back to her house. 

“Now, Mrs. Johnson...” Came a voice, and Tony whipped his head up to spot Loki leaning in his own doorway casually. Mrs. Johnson turned to look as well, eyes wild. “Don’t you know? Demons can only speak Latin.” His voice was smug. 

“You... you!” The old woman cried out. “I’ll-” 

“Come, dear, we’ll get you to bed and I’ll make you a nice cup of tea...” Frigga sighed. 

Tony stared at Loki in disbelief. The boy looked so unphased by the frog massacre around them, by the fact that he’d been accused of summoning demons and causing all of this. Loki pushed himself from the doorway and began his saunter over to Tony’s place. “Ready?” The boy asked. 

“I... y-yeah, just ah... one second.” Tony stammered. He was faltering and he didn’t know why. “Get in the car, I’ll be right there.” 

Loki shrugged and headed over to the car. The second his back was turned, Tony reached down and grabbed one of the dead frogs from the ground. Scrunching his nose as he felt the slimy, squishy flesh under his fingers, holding back a gag as he stashed the dead creature in a flower pot on the porch and then wiped his hand on the welcome mat. He needed to get to the bottom of how these frogs died. It might hold some clue as to what was going on around here, and he needed to make sure he had a specimen in case the neighborhood was cleaned up of the carnage before he got home from school. 

Tony got into the driver’s seat of the car and started up the engine. He glanced over to see Loki typing something into his phone and swallowed. “So ah... weird about the frogs, right?” 

“Hm? I suppose.” Loki shrugged. “Aren’t frog swarms common around here?” 

“Sure, but usually not this time of year. And the dead ones are usually a result of getting run over by cars... these ones aren’t squashed flat.” 

“Odd.” Loki’s voice didn’t sound very interested. 

Tony shook his head as he backed out of the driveway. 

\-- 

Later that night, Tony sat in his workshop alone, frowning as he dissected the frog. This felt like Biology class all over again, he thought as he peeled back the skin, trying to find something that indicated a cause of death. 

It was that association, and the smell that followed... it clicked instantly. 

This _ was _Biology class. Or rather, a frog that was supposed to go to a Biology class to be dissected. The smell of formalin was unmistakable. This was a bullfrog, a species he had thought looked so familiar, preserved in the formaldehyde and water solution formalin. 

“What the hell...?” Tony marveled. 

Someone had purchased (or stolen?) a couple hundred frogs meant for Biology classrooms... for a prank? That sealed it all, for Tony. All of these strange things that had been happening, though some seemed humanly impossible, were intentional, thought out. Elaborate pranks. But why? Why would anyone want to go this far? Was it someone trying to implicate the Odinsons, maliciously trying to get them kicked out of the neighborhood? If it was Loki doing this... what did he get out of it? Was it like he said all that time ago, about murderers? How they wanted recognition for their craft? But what did he gain from it when everyone thinks he’s summoning demons, and starting to hate him, to avoid him... 

Tony sat back in his chair, mind reeling. He needed a drink. 

Loki was laying back on his bed, listening to music and reading a book when Hela barged in. She stomped up to him and ripped out his earbuds by the wire, and he looked up at her curiously. “Isn’t it general courtesy to knock?” 

“What’s your game, kid?” Hela growled. 

“Whatever do you mean, dear sister?” 

“I don’t know how the hell you’re doing it, but you’ve made the entire neighborhood think you’re summoning demons, and you’ve dragged me into it!” 

“It’s not my fault you dress like a witch.” 

Hela snarled and grabbed him by the shirt, the book falling from his hands. “I don’t _ need _this, kid. I don’t need morons caressing their crosses when I walk past them, whispering about me... I have an important career and an image to maintain! I’m going to be the goddamn head of Asgard one day!” 

Loki rested a hand over hers that gripped his shirt tight, pulling uncomfortably on the back of his neck. “Calm down. You know me. I’ll have it all sorted soon, and things will go back to normal.” 

Hela glared at him for a long moment, angry green eyes looking into calm brighter green, until finally she released his shirt. “I can’t say I’m not impressed.” She admitted gruffly. “You’ve really outdone yourself this time.” 

Loki smirked and spread his hands. “It’s a gift.” 

Hela sighed, turned and started back towards the door. “Just fix it. You had your fun.” 

“The climax approaches, dear sister.” Loki promised, and she was gone. 

\-- 

The near-final step. This is the one that will finish the chain reaction that would lead to the turning point, the apex. The summit of this drama, the Prestige, just before he could take his bow and thank the audience for their kind support and adoration. These things were playing through Loki’s mind as he reached that windowsill and heaved himself up into a crouching position, took out his knife and worked the latches. He couldn’t afford to mess this up. Everything hinged on this moment. The final piece on the board. The final domino before the big push. 

He silently pushed the pane up with practiced ease and slipped down into the room below. It was dark, but Loki had decent nighttime vision. The moonlight bled down onto the floor below. He stood in place as he looked around, scanning his surroundings in the silence. He glanced at the bed in the corner, eyes adjusting as he searched for the form he knew would be there. 

Except... it wasn’t. 

The bed was empty. 

“...shit.” Loki’s heart caught in his throat. 

That was when something smashed into him and his world was turned upside down. He was thrown to the floor with a painful, bodily thud that knocked the wind out of him with a grunt of pain, and a considerable weight pinned him to the floor. 

“I knew it was only a matter of time before you tried one of your tricks on me.” He heard the voice of Tony growl in his ear. 

“O-oh, Tony!” Loki looked up at the boy pinning him, struggling a bit to speak with his weight on his torso. “I ah, just... snuck in here for some... fun? Thought you w-” 

Tony put a hand over Loki’s mouth, expression of annoyance. “Just, stop.” 

And that was how Loki soon found himself tied to a chair with a collection of soccer shoelaces, in the dim light of the table lamp as Tony glared down at him with folded arms. Loki glanced down at his arms bound to the chair and said, “Kinky. Didn’t realize you were into this sort of-” 

“Loki.” Tony warned. “We’re not playing right now.” 

“Alright, alright.” Loki sighed. 

“How the hell did you even get _ up _ to my window?” Tony paced in disbelief. “It’s two stories up on a _ flat edge _!” 

“I play a lot of Assassin’s Creed.” Loki shrugged best he could in the bindings. He was pretty sure his torso was bruised where Tony’s knee connected with it. That was going to hurt tomorrow. 

Tony leaned over and jabbed him on the chest with his finger. “I _ know _ it’s you doing all this weird shit around the neighborhood.” 

“Aw, don’t tell me you believe crazy old Mrs. Johnson too.” 

“Of _ course _not. You’re doing it all with... I don’t know, science and sneaking around.” 

“Doesn’t sound like me.” Loki said sarcastically, amused half-smirk on his face. 

Tony groaned and turned around, placing his hands behind his own head. “Look, Loki... I’m extremely impressed by it all, honestly I am. I’m dying to know how you’re accomplishing it all, and it was really hilarious after the first few pranks; _ but it needs to stop _.” 

Loki frowned. “I haven’t done anything to _ you _. Why do you care if I’m messing with people?” Well, there it was. Tony had been quite convinced by now, but here the boy was admitting to it and making it completely true. He really was very impressed. He would have to grill Loki on how he accomplished it all at some point. 

“Because this isn’t just silly pranks anymore. I mean... they are, but people are taking them a lot more seriously than minor annoyances. They’re about to burn you and your sister at the stake for being witches or something.” He walked back over and knelt in front of Loki, eye to eye, a hand on Loki’s knee. “Also, you’re my boyfriend and I love you and I don’t want to see people hating you. Is that fair?” 

Loki sighed. “Alright, alright. I’ll end it. But...” Loki hesitated for a moment. “You know I can’t just leave it as it is. People will still think Hela and I are demon worshippers.” 

“Then tell everyone the truth.” 

“Then they’ll hate me for being a prankster and, fair enough, stressing them all out. Trust me, it’s how it was back home in England.” Loki shifted a bit in the seat. “No... I need to do one more prank. One last big one to reverse it all, to ‘prove’ my innocence.” 

“Loki...” 

“And I need your help to do it.” 

“Wait, what?” 

“This is the endgame, Tony.” Loki grinned, somewhat manically. “Oh, do I have a glorious plan.” 

“...I really don’t like the sound of this.” 

\-- 

It was dusk, and people were milling about finishing up raking leaves from yards, winterizing garden beds and walking dogs. The sky bathed the neighborhood in crimson, and the street lights flickered on. It wasn’t as relaxed as it used to be, it hadn’t been for a few weeks. Everyone warily eyeing the shadows, nervous that something strange might happen. Neighbors met each other’s glances with knowing looks, a silent promise to watch each other’s backs and alert in case of another Something. 

In some ways, it wasn’t all that surprising when a strange fog began curling down the street, followed by quiet, unintelligible whispers that just tickled the ears. Everyone’s heads popped up to stare at the fog. Was this normal fog, or supernatural fog? They wondered. But when a burning red crack in the street just in front of the Odinson house appeared, glowing brighter and brighter, igniting the fog in crimson, they stopped wondering, and started shouting. Yelling to everyone to look out, because Something was happening again, and they didn’t know what the nature of it was yet. Faces peering out of windows in alarm, folks nearby scrambling away to watch from what they hoped was a safe distance. Mrs. Johnson opened her door just as something began to rise out of the crack. She screamed in terror as a ghastly, humanoid form in burning red slowly rose, crackling with energy and groaning menacingly in a booming, ear-piercing voice. Dogs began barking, some scrambling to run away in terror. You know when dogs are scared shitless, it’s probably legit. 

“A demon!” Mrs. Johnson cried, holding up her cross. “God save us!” 

A few other old people started shouting about end times, Armageddon and such as the burning creature rose, large and horrifying, arms raised. People went dizzy with fear and disbelief. This couldn’t be happening. They couldn’t possibly actually be witnessing the rise of a _ demon _ . It was _ impossible _. 

“My phone is disconnected!” A neighbor called out in fright. “I’m trying to call the police, but it won’t go through!” 

“My cellphone won’t work either!” Came another panicked voice, and many echoing sentiments. The phone lines were down across the neighborhood, and cell service was being blocked. No one could get through to call for help. What were the police going to do about a _ demon _, anyway? 

As all were shouting and screaming and running for cover, the door to the Odinson house opened and out stormed Odin. “What in Hel is all the commotion about?” He shouted. 

“Your children have summoned a demon!” Came the panicked shout of another neighbor. “Please, just leave us alone!” 

Odin looked flabbergasted as he stared at the monster. When its body was fully exposed, its feet shrouded in fog, it turned to glare at Mrs. Johnson, spouting out some strange words in a foreign tongue. 

Mrs. Johnson paled and staggered backwards. “J-John Beezer?!” She cried out in disbelief as she recognized the face of the monster. 

“Hodie, et non morieris!” It bellowed. The fog curled up around it like a robe, and smoke blew out of its nostrils. 

That was when Loki appeared, pushing past his father in the doorway and down the steps, gazing at the scene in front of him curiously. 

Another neighbor spotted the boy, pointed and shouted, “Send it away, please!” He implored. “We haven’t done anything to you!” 

Loki tilted his head. “What makes you think _ I _ called it here?” 

“Y-you... you’re a devil worshipper! It’s what you do!” 

Loki laughed. “I’m a _ scientist. _” He took steps toward the creature. “This is the poltergeist of Mr. Beezer. He has been haunting this house since before we arrived, best I’ve been able to tell, unable to rest for some reason. Perhaps we can figure out why, and he will leave.” 

“You don’t fool me, you... antichrist!” Mrs. Johnson sounded rabid as she took steps forward towards the sidewalk, brandishing her cross. “Get behind me, Satan!” 

Loki looked at her, unimpressed, as he walked into the street, facing the front of the ghost. It glared down at him with fiery eyes, spouting out words in its language. “Abite.” Its voice rumbled, and the street vibrated beneath their feet. 

“He is speaking Latin.” Loki noted, glancing at the closest neighbor. “I took a class a few years ago, perhaps he will tell me what he wants.” 

By this point, many other neighbors were crowded around at a safe distance, staring at this otherworldly scene in absolute shock. One person had fainted and was being attended to by her family. Loki’s family was also spilling out of the house, Hela and Thor looking astounded from beside their father, followed by Frigga who was trying to take in this situation. When she spotted Loki closer to the ghost than everyone else, she went pale and shouted to him, “Loki! Oh my gods, get away from that thing!” Her voice was a panic. 

“I don’t think he will harm me, mother.” Loki’s voice was calm. “I think he just wants to talk.” 

“I-if we give it what it wants, will it go away?” Another neighbor stammered. 

“I do believe that’s how poltergeists work.” Loki put his hands in his pockets and glanced up at the crimson creature. “Quid tu hic?” 

The creature with the face of Mr. Beezer glared down at him. “Arca archa.” 

“Quod arca archa?” 

“Deformis est arca archa!” It pointed in the direction of Mrs. Johnson with its twisted, clawed fingers, and her eyes widened in terror. 

“W-what does he want from me?” She cried. “John, we were friends!” 

“He can’t understand you I’m afraid, Mrs. Johnson.” Loki said kindly. “I think I may know what he wants, though.” He looked back up at the monster and pointed at Mrs. Johnson’s mailbox. “Haec arca archa? Vos volo abiit?” 

“Aufertur de conspectu meo!” 

Loki glanced back at Mrs. Johnson. “He doesn’t like your letterbox.” 

“Ego semper odio habere eam!” 

“If my understanding of poltergeists is correct, I would say he has always despised the letterbox to the point where it was the only thing he could think about when he died.” Loki explained. “And now his hatred for it keeps him here. I believe he may have been causing all these strange happenings in an attempt to communicate this issue, but communicating as a ghost is a tad tricky.” 

Mrs. Johnson’s mouth opened and closed like a fish. “My... my... _ mailbox _?!” 

“So it would seem. I’m afraid he’s finally manifested in order to kill you in hopes that the next homeowner gets rid of the thing.” 

Her eyes had gone round in horror. “W-what...? But... John always liked my mailbox!” 

“Yes, well, people will say the darnedest things to be polite.” 

“B-but... what if I just get rid of my mailbox...?” Mrs. Johnson swallowed. “Will he go away and leave us all alone...?” 

“I hope so.” Loki dipped his head. “Et ut auferrent ab eis sumus arca archa.” 

“Ego parcere vitae eius.” Came the rumbling response. “Deflagro arca archa.” 

“He says he will spare you if we get rid of the letterbox.” Loki translated. 

At that, Thor marched over, rounding the glowing crack in the ground to cross the street and head over to the mailbox. He glanced at Mrs. Johnson, “I can remove it, if that is what you want?” 

“Y-yes, yes! Whatever will make this unholy madness stop!” She placed a hand over her mouth in shock. 

Thor nodded, and reached out for the pole of the mailbox. With a grunt and a strong tug, he pulled the garish thing out of the ground. The creepy cherub faces almost looked surprised to be uprooted from their home of decades. He started walking away down the street with it, towards the dumpster at the end of the cul de sac. The neighborhood gasped simultaneously with surprise as the poltergeist immediately responded to this change. The moment the mailbox post was released from the ground, the red glow began fading to a bright blue, and the face once twisted in rage was melting into calm. 

“Gratias tibi. Ego dormio nunc.” The ghost of Mr. Beezer said softly. The watching crowd of people gazed in wonder as his image burst into blue flame, disintegrated into a thousand particles of light, and floated off in the wind. The crack in the ground cooled and closed up, and the fog slowly began to dissipate. The neighborhood breathed a collective sigh of relief. 

“So... you really aren’t demon summoners?” An older man asked Loki, glancing at Hela who was looking at the entire scene with an incredulous expression. 

“Afraid not. Just regular people, apparently living in a haunted house.” Loki shrugged. 

The adrenaline of terror still rushing through everyone’s veins, all who had bore witness to this event were wide-eyed and chattering about it, making phone calls to tell whoever they could about this impossible thing, and most everyone spilling into the street to examine the spot where the ghost had vanished and coming over to hug or pat Loki on the shoulder. They thanked him, tears of relief in their eyes that the madness was finally over, and apologized for having the wrong impression. Loki accepted their gratitude and apologies gracefully. 

Thor slapped him on the back excitedly. “Would you believe it, my little brother spoke to a _ poltergeist _!” 

“Yes well, I’m just glad I took that Latin class.” Loki responded meekly. “Not sure I’d have been much use without it. 

Mrs. Johnson had a hand to her cheek as she began waddling towards Loki. “I’m afraid I’ve made a terrible, misconstrued mess of things, dear...” She looked apologetic. “And there you went saving the old lady that spread lies about you.” 

Loki smiled kindly, taking her hands in his. “Fear does funny things to people, I don’t blame you.” 

“Can you ever forgive this old fool?” 

“You’re already forgiven.” He pat her on the hand before releasing them. “Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to check on my boyfriend.” Loki rolled his eyes and muttered. “I really can’t believe he slept through all that.” As he began to push through the crowd, his arm was grabbed and he looked up to see his sister staring at him. 

“Nice job, kid.” She said. It was a compliment that could be heard as, ‘good job saving the neighborhood from the poltergeist’, but Loki knew that she really meant ‘crazy special effects, you mad little fucker, and nice job getting the neighborhood off our backs’. Loki smirked lightly and nodded, and she released him to continue on towards the Stark house. 

Howard and Maria were gone as usual, which had been a necessary part of the plan, so the house was quite empty when Loki let himself in using the key Tony had given him. He headed straight for the stairs and started down towards the workshop. He soon found Tony at the station with multiple screens. Many of them had live camera feed of the street just outside. Tony spun around in his chair and spread his hands, “So, did BARF meet your expectations?” 

“More than. I can’t believe you managed to invent _ holograms _in two nights!” Loki gazed at him in admiration and wonder. Tony’s brain truly was the most beautiful part of his considerably beautiful body. 

“You put on a damn good show.” Tony smirked. “You ever consider getting into acting?” 

“If I have time between setting up a Mars colony, running the entire internet, and ruling the world, I’ll consider it.” The boy strode over and straddled Tony’s lap, looking into his warm brown eyes with a smirk. 

Tony placed his hands on Loki’s thighs and returned the expression. “You know, I don’t doubt for a second that you’re going to find a way to achieve all of those things, you goddamn madman.” 

“We could rule the world together, you and I.” Loki said softly as he leaned in to kiss him, his lips silky and warm. At the moment, in this exciting embrace, as he pulled Loki closer to kiss harder, ruling the world beside this crazy, sexy bastard sounded like the best possible future he could imagine. 

Because to be honest, pulling this crazy prank together was good, damn, chaotic fun. 

\--   


The events that had occurred that night were the talk of the school for at least two full weeks. At first, there was a good amount of disbelief from those who hadn’t been there to witness it, but it was hard to deny something that so many people swore they experienced. The fact that everyone’s accounts of the tale were cohesive, not conflicting like most supernatural experiences, aided in perpetuating the tale. Loki was the hero of the school; gone was the mistrust and whispers, rumors about being a demon worshipper (he was just ‘misunderstood’ it seemed, just a perfectly harmless goth kid), replaced by congratulatory shoulder pats in the halls. There were so many kids who signed up for Latin class for the next semester that they had to deny some of them. Natasha demanded Loki tutor her on it personally. Rhodey, at first, was mad that Tony hadn’t let him sleep over that night, because then he wouldn’t have missed the whole crazy thing, and couldn’t believe Tony had seriously slept through it all. The story had made it to the newspaper, and was spreading like wildfire over the internet; though widely considered a hoax outside of this town. Needless to say, it had been a crazy few weeks. 

Tony, being one of only two people other than Loki who knew what had really happened that day, thought back on all the events that had occurred since the Odinsons had moved in over those two weeks. Loki wasn’t overly forthcoming about how he had achieved any of his pranks, only really dropping hints here and there. But overall? It got Tony wondering. Had Loki planned every moment of it all from the beginning? Was it not just random pranks for occasional fun; rather, had they all been intentionally connected from the start? Had he planned that endgame all along? Even his involvement with Tony... was that part of the plan too? Seduce him so he could use his tech and brain to help him achieve his planned final stand? He couldn’t help but wonder. None of it was outside Loki’s scope of vision, he was seemingly more than capable. If it was true, Tony couldn’t help a mix of betrayal and feeling very impressed. 

It wouldn’t really matter, though, in the end. If seducing Tony to get what he wanted was indeed his plan in the beginning, Loki hadn’t dropped him once his plan had been successful. Loki may be a long-game kind of guy, but you couldn’t fake that much affection in your eyes every day. He knew for a fact Loki’s affections were genuine, and they remained very happily a couple to this day. If anything, their relationship was better than ever, and Tony was quite convinced they were going to be together forever. As the weeks turned into months and graduation grew closer, they made plans for the far future. Get a flat next to the college together when Loki graduated the following year. That was an exciting thought, the idea of living with what they both knew was far more than just a high school boyfriend. Their future together, they both knew, held the world’s greatest inventions, prestige and glamour, probably the decoding of the Kydrr Codex and ending the world as they knew it, love and passion, and most importantly of all; shenanigans. Great heaps of shenanigans. 

Still, the greatest question of all swam through Tony’s mind at least once every day. Had the true purpose of that above-and-beyond elaborate, time-sacrificing, resource-heavy plan of Loki’s actually been... just to get rid of Mrs. Johnson’s hideous mailbox? 

The world may never know. 

**Author's Note:**

> I used google translate for that Latin so I apologize profusely if any of you actually know the language lmao
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!
> 
>   
[My Tumblr](https://morphiina.tumblr.com/)


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